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Never thought of the impact of misspronoucing a student's name or attempting to "Americanize" others names.

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Never thought of the impact of misspronoucing a student's name or attempting to "Americanize" others names.

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Taking the attendance at the beginning of class may seem a routine if not mundane task to many educators. But to students, their name can be a powerful link to their identity. Pronouncing students names correctly - during attendance, a classroom activity, or any other time of the school day-should always be a priority for any classroom teacher.

Names holds ancestral and historical significance for many minority, immigrant, and English learning students. Names bring stories, which students are often forced to adapt to an "Americanized" context.

That transition, however, is often painful and forces many students to take on a name that is not their own.

Yee Wan was only 17 years old when she moved to the United States from Mainland China. After enrolling in the bilingual program at her school, she was faced with the overwhelming and unfair decision over whether she would keep her native name or change it to something more "Americanized." Why? So that educators would not struggle over the pronunciation. Wan later realized she had no choice but to take up the name her ESL teacher thought suited her. Her new name would be Winnie.

Names bring stories, which students are often forced to adapt to an "Americanized" context.

Years later, Wan sits as the current president of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) and her personal experiences became the impetus for a campaign launched this year to spotlight the importance of student names. A collaboration between the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and NABE, My Name, My Identity is calling attention to the potential negative effects of a mispronounced name and the ways schools and communities can defuse the problem.

"Mispronouncing a student's name truly negates his or her identity, which, in turn, can hinder academic progress," says Wan, who also serves as director of multilingual education services at SCCOE.

"A tiny act of bigotry"

Overlooking or downplaying the significance of getting a name right, explains Rita Kohli, assistant professor of education at the University of California at Riverside, is one of those "microagressions" that can emerge in a classroom and seriously undermine learning.

"Names have incredible significance to families, with so much thought, meaning and culture woven into them," Kohli says. "When the child enter school and teachers-consciously or not-mispronounce, disregard or change the name, they are in a sense disregarding the family and culture of the students as well."

"A tiny act of bigotry," is how former teacher and education blogger Jennifer Gonzalez succinctly put it in 2014. In a post titled "How We Pronounce Students' Names and Why It Matters," Gonzalez wrote, "Whether you intend to or not, what you're communicating is this: Your name is different. Foreign. Weird. It's not worth my time to get it right."

"Students often felt shame, embarrassment and that their name was a burden."

The effects can be long-lasting. In 2012, Kohli and Daniel Solorzano examined the issue in a study called "Teachers, Please Learn Our Names!: Racial Microagressions and the K-12 Classrooms." They found that the failure to pronounce a name correctly impacts the world view and social emotional well-being of students, which, of course, is linked to learning.

"Students often felt shame, embarrassment and that their name was a burden," Kohli says. "They often began to shy away from their language, culture and families."

Kohli points out that most educators are not doing so out of disrespect, but tend to be confined by a monocultural viewpoint that makes it "more challenging to center cultures outside of their own." Consequently, certain names sound unfamiliar and fall far outside their comfort zone.

Showing respect, however, doesn't necessarily require that an educator nails the pronounciation on the first attempt. "We can't say every sound or name in the world, but it is how we respond that matters," says Kohli.

Learn from the mistake

At Iroqouis High School in Jefferson County, Kentucky, where Mollie Robertson teaches math, English Language Learners will soon comprise almost one-third of the student population. For Robertson, every educator has an obligation to to promote equity and respect in the classroom.

"All students should have the opportunity to learn in a safe environment," Robertson says. "To fully accept and respect a student, you must at a minimum know how to pronounce their name."

Robertson adds that it's okay to make an error, "but it is not okay to ignore the mistake or not learn from it."

AP Images / Alberto Pellaschiar

That's where My Name My Identity comes in. On the campaign's web site, teachers can access various resources on how to honor their students names. The campaign looks beyond the classroom to ask all community members to make a pledge honoring their neighbors' and co-workers' identities. Students and their families are also invited to share the significance behind their name on the My Name, My Identity Facebook page, or by tweeting @mynamemyid.

While the focal point of the campaign is students' names, My Name, My Identity is about building a positive, inclusive school culture. With the teaching force still overwhelmingly white, the ability of educators with diverse classrooms to respect their students' identity is critical, says Kohli.

"All teachers need to reflect upon and interrogate their biases and any deficit thinking they may have. See the cultural wealth of students and families, and approach teaching and learning through the lens and culture of students and their communities."
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.

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The lasting impact of white teachers who mispronounce minority student names

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"Mispronouncing a student's name truly negates his or her identity, which, in turn, can hinder academic progress."

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Great Classroom Activity to Bring up the Topic of Privilege

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Great Classroom Activity to Bring up the Topic of Privilege

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"Your job - as students who are receiving an education - is to be aware of your privilege. And use this particular privilege called "education" to do your best to achieve great things, all the while advocating for those in the rows behind you."

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This Teacher Taught His Class A Powerful Lesson About Privilege

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"Your job - as students who are receiving an education - is to be aware of your privilege. And use this particular privilege called "education" to do your best to achieve great things, all the while advocating for those in the rows behind you."

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Great Chart to put up to Celebrate Diversity

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Great Chart to put up to Celebrate Diversity

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Literacy is an integral part of any Classroom but it's also a great platform to explore Diversity

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Literacy is an integral part of any Classroom but it's also a great platform to explore Diversity

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We can talk to students about respecting each other's differences until we're blue in the face, but sometimes, it takes a good story for them to truly get the message.

That's why fourth-grade teacher Stephanie recently wrote into the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE! asking for book suggestions for her students. "I'm looking for children's books about celebrating differences, accepting others, being friendly to those who are different, and focusing on good things like that," she writes. "Any ideas or suggestions?"

Stephanie, we've got you covered. Check out the top childrens books about diversity as suggested by our helpliners!

"Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes."- Heather N
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"Queen Rania's The Sandwich Swap." - Adriane G.

"Each Kindness, by Jacqueline Woodson." - Irene G. " Each Kindness is a wonderful book about the importance of compassion." - Karen K.

" by Patricia Polacco." - Becky S. "Yes! Junkyard Wonders!!" - Leslie A.

"Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun; Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon; and Hooway for Wodney Wat." - Natayle B.

"Wonder, by R.J. Palacio and Eleanor Estes's The Hundred Dresses." - Laura F. "I second Wonder!" - Robin C.

"Salina Yoon's Be a Friend. Plus, if you tweet the author, she'll write you back!" - Laurie A.

"I love Todd Parr books. They are very elementary but cute and to the point. One title is It's Okay to Be Different." - Farrah C.

"The Name Jar is a good story." - Ruthie L
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"How about Pink and Say? Great book about celebrating and accepting differences. It ties in social studies as well." - Robin C.

"Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss!" - Christy C.

"Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler." - Aubrey J.

"For any book you end up using, check out Teaching Tolerance for resources." - Wendy F.

Teachers, what great books would you add to this list?

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15 Great Childrens Books That Celebrate Diversity - WeAreTeachers

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We can talk to students about respecting each other's differences until we're blue in the face, but sometimes, it takes a good story for them to truly get the message. That's why fourth-grade teacher Stephanie recently wrote into the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE! asking for book suggestions for her students.

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Teacher Discussing her Realization of White Privelege

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Teacher Discussing her Realization of White Privelege

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Emily E. Smith is a fifth-grade social justice and English language arts teacher at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin, Tex. She was just awarded the 2015 Donald H. Graves Excellence in the Teaching of Writing award given at the National Teachers of English Language Arts Convention in Minneapolis. Smith created and founded The Hive Society, a classroom that inspires children to creatively explore literature through critical thinking and socially relevant texts.

In her speech accepting the award, Smith talked about a seminal moment in her career when she realized she needed to change her approach to teaching students of color, one of whom told her that she couldn't understand his problems because she is white. The following is an excerpt of the speech in which she discusses her transformation (and which I am publishing with permission).

From Smith's speech:

I'm white. My classroom is not. Sure, it's been my dream to work at an "urban" school. To work with kids whose challenges I could never even fathom at such a young age. And changing at-risk lives through literature is almost a media cliché by now. These were, however, how I identified myself at the beginning of my teaching career. I was a great teacher. I taught children how to truly write for the first time and share meaningful connections on a cozy carpet. We made podcasts about music lyrics and filled our favorite books so full with annotated sticky notes that they would barely close. We even tiptoed into the alien world of free verse poetry.

But something was missing. If you've already forgotten, I'm white. "White" is kind of an uncomfortable word to announce, and right now people may already be unnerved about where this is going. Roughly 80 percent of teachers in the United States today are white. Yet the population of our students is a palette. That means America's children of color will, for the majority of their school years, not have a teacher who is a reflection of their own image. Most of their school life they will be told what to do and how to do it by someone who is white, and most likely female. Except for a few themed weeks, America's children of color will read books, watch videos, analyze documents and study historical figures who are also not in their image.

I've been guilty of that charge. But things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I "couldn't understand because I was a white lady." I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.

My curriculum from then on shifted. We still did all of the wonderful things that I had already implemented in the classroom, except now the literature, the documents, the videos, the discussions, the images embodied the issues that my children wanted to explore. We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture - so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw light in their eyes I had never seen before. We analyzed Langston Hughes's "Let America be America Again" from the lens of both historical and current events and realized that the United States is still the land that has never been. The land that my kids, after reading an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son that connected so deeply to their personal experiences, decided they still wanted to believe in. The land they decided to still hope for. The land that one of my kids quietly said would be changed by her generation. A generation of empathy.

We read about the Syrian crisis, analyzing photographs of war-torn faces at the border and then wrote poetry of hope, despair and compassion from the perspectives of the migrants. Many of my kids asked to write about their own journeys across the border and their [dreams] for a better future. One child cried and told me he never had a teacher who honored the journey his family took to the United States. He told me he was not ashamed anymore, but instead proud of the sacrifice his parents made for him.

We listened to StoryCorps podcasts by people from different walks of life, and children shared their own stories of losing pets, saying goodbye to a mother or father in jail, the fear of wearing a hoodie while walking to a 7-Eleven, and thriving under the wing of a single parent who works two jobs.

So as I stand here today I can declare that I am no longer a language arts and social studies teacher, but a self-proclaimed teacher of social justice and the art of communication with words.

Looking back, I think that my prior hesitation to talk about race stemmed from a lack of social education in the classroom. A lack of diversity in my own life that is, by no means, the fault of my progressive parents, but rather a broken and still segregated school system. Now that I'm an educator in that system, I've decided to stand unflinching when it comes to the real issues facing our children today, I've decided to be unafraid to question injustice, unafraid to take risks in the classroom - I am changed. And so has my role as a teacher.

I can't change the color of my skin or where I come from or what the teacher workforce looks like at this moment, but I can change the way I teach. So I am going to soapbox about something after all. Be the teacher your children of color deserve. In fact, even if you don't teach children of color, be the teacher America's children of color deserve, because we, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.

So teach the texts that paint all the beautiful faces of our children and tell the stories of struggle and victory our nation has faced. Speak openly and freely about the challenges that are taking place in our country at this very moment. Talk about the racial and class stereotypes plaguing our streets, our states, our society. You may agree that black and brown lives matter, but how often do you explore what matters to those lives in your classroom?

Put aside your anxieties and accept your natural biases. Donald Graves once said, "Children need to hang around a teacher who is asking bigger questions of herself than she is asking of them." I know I'm going to continue to ask the bigger questions of myself and seek the answers that sometimes feel impossible, because my kids deserve it ... you're welcome to join me. Thank you.

(Update: removing extraneous word, "even" from this sentence: "The land that my kids, after reading an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son that connected so deeply to their personal experiences, decided they still wanted to believe in."

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Teacher: A student told me I 'couldn't understand because I was a white lady.' Here's what I did then.

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Award-winning educator: 'I've decided to stand unflinching when it comes to the real issues facing our children today, I've decided to be unafraid to question injustice, unafraid to take risks in the classroom - I am changed. And so has my role as a teacher.'