For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education (Race, Education, and Democracy)

by Christopher Emdin

TEACHER: We have had these cyphers for a while now, and I think we can do more to get other people involved. I need other students to be a part of this, don’t you agree? STUDENTS: Yes (almost in unison). TEACHER: I also need someone from this group to work more in the classroom on collecting and distributing assignments for the class so I can concentrate more on implementing the suggestions you guys come up with in the cogens. (At this stage, most if not all of the students raise their hands or volunteer to take on the newly introduced role in the classroom, because they see it as continuing on with the agenda of the cogens, which is to improve the classroom.) TEACHER: Well, I don’t want everyone to take on this responsibility in the classroom because it is a lot. In fact, the person who takes on this role will not be able to be a part of the cogen group while they have this role because it is so important. The thing is that this person can invite someone else in the class to be a part of the cogen. They then become an honorary member. Almost like they graduated. STUDENT A: I’ll volunteer. I can handle that. STUDENT B: I don’t mind doing it either. TEACHER: It’s your group and your class. I’ll let you guys decide and let us know what you decide later.