Theme With Greatest Impact

 The theme that has had the greatest impact on me as an educator has been the big question “Whose are told and whose remain in the margins?” I feel that this big question has impacted me the most because I have personally felt marginalized growing up. So not only do I understand those that remain in the margins, but I have also felt what they feel. I have firsthand experience on what it’s like to not be privileged and to not have the resources that most other students do. I grew up learning other people's realities instead of my own, my culture and ethnicity was seen as less compared to white people. In Segregated by Experience the first sentence starts with “many young children of color are forced to walk in prisonlike lines with silent “bubbles in their mouths'' and hands behind their backs.” This statement shocked me because something I grew up learning in elementary school was actually a controlling mechanism implemented by white supremacy to control the behavior of students that looked like me. It’s even more shocking that it’s a behavior that is still seen to this day, and it’s completely normal. It’s hard to believe that something that looks so harmless has a negative and dark origin. 

Additionally, in Segregated by Experience, it says how “young children of color are also impacted by… fewer resources than White schools enjoy, overburdened and undersupported teachers and principals, and the constant presence of racial, economic, linguistic and ethnic discrimination.” I grew up in a low income community and went to a public school close to home, so there weren't many resources available. I sometimes think and wonder how different my life would’ve been if I was able to get a better quality education like white people get. I do feel that to a certain extent, the quality of my education received as a child has led me to where I am today. Don’t get me wrong, I had amazing teachers throughout my school years, but I know I was limited due to being in a low income community. For example, most schools nowadays provide Ipads or chromebooks to their students, and that wasn’t even a remote possibility for me when I was in grade school, my school wasn’t able to provide us anything, just a free public education. So when I become a teacher and teach students that look like me, I want to make sure that they never feel limited like I did when I was in their shoes. I want to provide them with everything that I wasn’t able to receive. It's crucial for all students to receive the same quality of education, regardless of their background.