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Lauren Rindeikis- Christopher Emdin's Reality Pedagogy

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Lauren Rindeikis- Christopher Emdin's Reality Pedagogy

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Teaching to the students and not to the curriculum

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Reality Pedagogy: Christopher Emdin at TEDxTeachersCollege

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Kenzie Duwe- What ‘White Folks Who Teach in the Hood’ Get Wrong About Education

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Kenzie Duwe- What ‘White Folks Who Teach in the Hood’ Get Wrong About Education

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What ‘white folks who teach in the hood’ get wrong about education

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A Columbia University professor has had enough of what he calls a pervasive narrative in urban education: a savior complex that places mostly white teachers in minority classrooms as heroes who “saving” kids.

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Kenzie Duwe- Songs for Biology: Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn Science

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Kenzie Duwe- Songs for Biology: Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn Science

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Here is an example of Emdin's idea of authentically incorporating students' culture into their learning.

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PBS NewsHour
Clip: Season 2013 | 8m 55s

In a New York City classroom, teachers use rap songs to teach complex science. Playlists are used as a metaphor to convey natural selection, and students compose raps songs to reinforce concepts. Ray Suarez reports on the effectiveness of this strategy and interviews hip-hop legend (and science geek) GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Aired: 03/27/13

Rating: NR

Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

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PBS NewsHour | Songs for Biology: Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn Science | Season 2013

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PBS NewsHour Clip: Season 2013 | 8m 55s In a New York City classroom, teachers use rap songs to teach complex science. Playlists are used as a metaphor to convey natural selection, and students compose raps songs to reinforce concepts.

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Here's an informative blog about the "white savior" complex.

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"Sarah, Elizabeth, and John weren't bigots though. Theirs, however, was a kind of dangerous discourse of a perverted liberalism. Vocabularies of fear and victimization, of vilification and social superiority have long allowed privileged onlookers such as Sarah, Elizabeth, and John to deputize themselves as unwanted saviors who crusade in the situation of misunderstood peoples" (Kirkland, 2014, p.591)

This quote reminded me of the "white savior" complex, which is a far too common perspective held by mainly American individuals who have been exposed (through media outlets, controversial portrayals represented by Hollywood, etc.) to images and stereotypes of the "other", or someone who looks different and comes from a different cultural background, perceived as less sophisticated and backward thinking. The "white savior" complex can be seen among service project groups going to "third world countries" (which, in and of itself, holds a stigma related to suffering and deprivation), who believe that, with the right implementation of direction commonly practiced in their own country or hometown and grounded in their own cultural beliefs, can help these people follow a more sophisticated path to being "saved." This then results in service project groups being sent out to "impoverished" areas around the world to provide academic, medical or emotional care to individuals based on their own, usually western, cultural perspectives, keeping in mind little to no knowledge or need to learn from the culture of the people who form the society being penetrated. Yet, this fulfills the sense of "feeling good about oneself" and accomplishment that is far too common among Americans involved in such social projects, especially those who make up the middle and higher classes.

This "white" or "American savior" complex reflected by Kirkland's student teacher participants greatly affects their misplaced understanding of learning to serve. As a result, the student teachers distance themselves from the students, focusing only on their own biases.

As teachers, seeing ourselves as "saviors" or people who will "fix" their students is not and should never be a consideration. Our role is to serve as resources and support for our students who are on their way to reach their full potential. Our job is to respect our students and not enter any situation with preconceived notions about them and how they may behave due to their appearance, their socioeconomic background or where they may come from. Both teachers and students should be learning from each other, and teachers should foster an environment of cultural understanding and acceptance, which in turn will hopefully result in a more inclusive, successful and productive learning environment.

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"Sarah, Elizabeth, and John weren't bigots though. Theirs, however, was a kind of dangerous discourse of a perverted liberalism.

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Nearly 20 years ago, Christopher Emdin was a novice teacher who practiced scowling in front of a mirror so that he could maintain order and quiet in his classroom. He was only practicing what others preached: One day, when the sound of sirens persisted outside the school for far longer than usual, the principal's office called to tell him that two planes had hit the World Trade Center, and that he must keep his students working and not tell them what was going on.

"I ignored the chaos of the world beyond the classroom because I believed it was my job to just keep on teaching," writes Emdin, Associate Professor of Science Education at Teachers College, in an essay just published in The Atlantic (part of the magazine's "On Teaching" project). "Looking back now, I realize I was not actually teaching at all."
[Read the full text of Emdin's essay, "Teaching Isn't About Managing Behavior: It's About Reaching Students Where They Really Are."]

I ignored the chaos of the world beyond the classroom because I believed it was my job to just keep on teaching. Looking back now, I realize I was not actually teaching at all.

Today, when "the coronavirus has emerged as another siren, tearing through our collective sense of normal," Emdin, who has become globally recognized for championing the use of hip hop to teach science, calls for teachers to employ a "reality pedagogy" that "involves connecting academic content to what's happening in the world that affects students" and "making sure that their lives and backgrounds are reflected in the curriculum and in classroom conversations."

TEACHING THROUGH PROTEST Emdin argues that teachers must "disrupt teaching norms that harm vulnerable students." (Photo: TC Archives)

Invoking the specter of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis policeman who killed George Floyd, he argues that that to do anything less is a form of racism that amounts to placing "a metaphorical knee on the necks of young people."

Emdin calls for a "reality pedagogy" that "involves connecting academic content to what's happening in the world that affects students" and "making sure that their lives and backgrounds are reflected in the curriculum and in classroom conversations."

Emdin says that he himself was guilty of doing just that in the wake of 9/11, when he failed to admonish students who called their Muslim peers "terrorists."

"I didn't make space for my Muslim students to heal from being targeted," he writes. "But if I had started that dialogue, I would have learned a lot from them about how I could have been a better teacher."
[Read a story about the call by TC alumna Jamila Lyiscott, at TC's Reimagining Education Summer Institute, for a "pandemic pedagogy."]
Indeed, Emdin says, "the best teachers use their pedagogy as protest" to "disrupt teaching norms that harm vulnerable students." They also view students as "co-teachers" who "can see what teachers have been trained to ignore."

"If teachers want to respond to racism as they've responded to the coronavirus pandemic," Emdin concludes, "they can start here-in their own classrooms."

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.

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Nearly 20 years ago, Christopher Emdin was a novice teacher who practiced scowling in front of a mirror so that he could maintain order and quiet in his classroom.

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Abigail Smith-Films that have a "white savior complex"

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Abigail Smith-Films that have a "white savior complex"

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There are many movies that include a white savior complex. Freedom writers is one.

Dangerous Minds (1995)
The Help (2011)
The Blindside (2009)

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Lauren Rindeikis: Teaching Outside of the "White Saviorism" trope

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Lauren Rindeikis: Teaching Outside of the "White Saviorism" trope

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To Kill a Mockingbird in the classroom

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I'm sure I wasn't the only 14-year-old girl who felt this way-he embodied so many things little girls were raised to look for in their Prince Charming. He was caring and sensitive, but a bit of a badass who secretly knew how to shoot. He was a good father and a smart lawyer. It didn't hurt that he was played in the film by Gregory Peck, whose tall frame and chiseled jaw were the stuff of movie magic for years.

When I had to return to the text a decade later as a teacher, there were two things I remembered: that the book was long, and that I'd had a deep affection for Atticus Finch as a girl.

When I went to reread the novel, I was surprised by how much I had missed at 14. There was a nuance in Harper Lee's world building, and a lovely, flowy sort of prose that, as an educator, I now adore. ("The starched cotton walls of the pink penitentiary" is still a line I love to teach.)

Four years later, I'm still teaching the book, and I love doing so. When a district in Biloxi, Mississippi, recently tried to ban it, I wrote a defense of the novel. I stand behind that defense, but I had a few teachers bring up an aspect of the novel I had failed to address. This was something that I had faced while coming of age as a young woman of color, but not something I'd associated with the novel-or the character-I adored: The book's loving, fatherly "hero," my crush Atticus Finch, fit into a number of problematic " white male savior " tropes common in our media.

Books, television and film have ingrained audiences with the belief that a white person, often a man, will swoop in and, being a man of "principle," save the day. I had forgotten how much Atticus Finch fits into (and perhaps is one of the early examples of) this trope. He is a strong, idealistic figure and, because he values the black community of Maycomb, he somehow proves to the reader that the black community of Maycomb is worth valuing. His approval of the novel's "clean-living" black people somehow makes their lives worthwhile, when they weren't before.

As an adult reader, I retook the journey of coming to value a group of people only through a white gaze. As I did so, I couldn't help but feel a little...icky. It was icky because it was problematic. It was icky because it was frustrating. Mostly, though, it was icky because it was familiar.

I was disheartened that, as I read the book, I was reminded of the many ways my experience had mirrored that aspect of the novel. I had at times centered my own life around the gaze of a white man. How many times had I presented and sold my culture to white men-a boyfriend or authority figure-in hopes of gaining their validation that my "crazy brown culture" and its customs and traditions was worthwhile? How often had I lain my own personal struggle at their feet-anxiety, assault, trauma, insecurity-in hopes that they would come in as my shining white knights and save the day?

I considered myself a strong, independent woman. Yet I saw that, subconsciously perhaps, I had consistently asked white men to appreciate and "save" my culture and identity instead of learning how to save and love myself.

This realization hit me right in the gut. It forced me to come to terms with how white-centered tropes dominate our media and shaped my perception as a young woman of color. More importantly, it made me see that the stakes were even higher now.

Now, I had to ask myself: What would this book mean for the young people I taught each day?

When I returned to Mockingbird, I realized I had three options:

1. I could teach the book but ignore the difficult conversation about white savior tropes (and hope my students didn't notice).

2. I could not teach the book and avoid the discussion.

3. I could teach the book, face the problems within the novel and use it as a jumping-off point for my students.

Of course, there is something to be said for not teaching To Kill a Mockingbird and instead teaching a book written by a person of color. I think that is a perfectly valid argument for moving away from the text.

That said, as uncomfortable as my realizations about the white savior trope made me feel, I also know that vulnerability and honesty are the best policies with students. As much as a part of me didn't want to deal with the intricacies of the novel's flaws, I also knew I'd be missing a huge opportunity to teach my students a valuable lesson about history, power, who gets to tell stories and how they get to do so. I needed them to understand that society has been feeding communities of color a lie about their self-worth.

Now, there are some important questions my students and I explore as we read the text and watch the film:

What does it mean that Atticus fights for Tom because he is a "clean-living" black person? What does "clean-living" mean?

What don't we hear from Lula and Calpurnia? (This assignment from Teaching Tolerance helps, along with this one I created.)

In the novel, Tom is killed by guards and they find seventeen bullets in his body (Atticus notes, "They didn't have to shoot him so many times"). However, in the film, Tom is killed accidentally by a police officer who was trying to "shoot to wound" and missed. Why did they make that change?

Asking these questions is hard, but they do more than assuage my own personal guilt when teaching the novel. In asking these questions, I am teaching my students to stop seeing texts-and authors-as infallible pieces of art to be placed on pedestals without question.

By teaching my students to question texts and their authors and to place both in historical context, I am also giving them the skills to question the media they consume today. I don't want my students to feel like anyone has to come and save them. I need them to realize that while we, historically, have been given that perception, it is up to us to break the cycle. I need them to see that, ultimately, we must learn to save ourselves.
Torres is an eighth-grade English teacher in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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I'm sure I wasn't the only 14-year-old girl who felt this way-he embodied so many things little girls were raised to look for in their Prince Charming. He was caring and sensitive, but a bit of a badass who secretly knew how to shoot. He was a good father and a smart lawyer.

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Lauren Rindeikis: Books with White Saviorism plotlines

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Lauren Rindeikis: Books with White Saviorism plotlines

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Sojourner Truth: Path to Glory (merchant) – Most books about Sojourner Truth really harp on the basic human decency of the Van Wagenens. This one goes above and beyond in focusing them and centering white perspectives and terminology. After reading this one, Q asked that we please stop reading books on slavery written by white men.

Sweet Land of Liberty – Hopkinson – Read more.

Phyllis’s Big Test – Read more

My Two Blankets

Secret Signs (Riggio) – Books about slavery and the underground railroad that center on white people make me uneasy. To the author’s credit, the protagonist is Deaf. But still.

Bodhisattva & The Turtle – The turtle is code for an Asian Buddhist monk. After the turtle sames some dude bro, the bro is like “Imma learn all this buddhism shit and come back and school you in it. Yer welcome.” I’m paraphrasing. But seriously, this book is awe-inspiring levels of garbage.

Kunkush (not to be confused with Lost & Found Cat, which is lovely). Read more here.

Racism and Intolerance (Spilsbury) – This whole thing is garbage, but specifically we’ll focus on the page where some East Asian people are fighting with brown-skinned Muslims and a white lady shows up to calm them all down and save the day. WHAT NO. The author then goes on to propose that donating to charities (which are never unvetted, corrupt, or channels for wealthy trusts and the people behind them to profit off oppression, nope nope) is primary solution to combat racism (HINT: IT IS NOT.)

Unspoken (Cole)- We don’t even see the people this white girl is ‘saving’ – just eyeballs peeking out of floorboards.

Follow The Drinking Gourd (Winter) – On the plus side, it’s a disabled white man who rescues people. Which almost makes it okay that all these enslaved people need a white man to tell them basic stuff like ‘leave.’ (Except it is still not okay.) I’m being hard on this book – it has its merits, but I’d still love to see it centered on the actual people fleeing, rather than the white accomplice.

John Brown: His Fight For Freedom – Hendrix – When a white militant anti-slavery radical gets violent and kills people to end slavery, he’s a complicated hero with good intentions. Somehow white violence always justifies itself. Sigh. Seriously though – click through and look at this cover.

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[Image: Cover image from John Brown: His Fight For Freedom by John Hendrix. The image depicts (and I shit-you-not) a grizzled white man accompanied by two small, pathetic-looking Black children, he cradles one in his arm and there's an American flag and everything.]
Stories that feed into the narrative of the white savior
Quick Things You Need To Know:

These are all problematic books.

Check out this post about youth saviors for problematic books that reinforce stigma against older adults, with young people swooping in to offer super obvious solutions.

I wrote extensively on the use of the savior narrative in kidlit in part #3 of Smashing Wealth Inequality - Beyond Victims & saviors. I'm not going to rehash that here, so you should read that whole thing for proper scaffolding before you move forward with this book list.

Problematic books are best read to kids ages 4+, where you can stop and ask them "This book is saying.... how do you feel about that? Do you think the author should be teaching kids this?"

Obviously just the overtly problematic stuff for preschool, but you can get into some pretty deep messages by the time they're 7 (read Victims & saviors for an explanation on cognitive development.)

We discuss a little bit about white saviorism in the Black Women in US history collection, too.

I talk about nondisabled saviorism in this article about a book that bypasses it in the perfect way.

And about centering saviors in books like Kunkush over here.

There is such a thing as a book featuring white accomplices without glorifying them as saviors. These are rare. That will have to wait for another list.

Authors like Gerald McDermott, Leonard Everett Fisher, and Paul Goble are good (and by that, I mean terrible) examples of white savior authors. Convinced that Indigenous voices and stories would die out without them appropriating, twisting, and profiting off their oral stories (because white printed media is superior to oral storytelling, right?) These authors have established reputations and careers off 'saving' (re: stealing) native stories, sanitizing them, and selling them to non-Indigenous kids under the guise of promoting 'diversity.'

Whenever you have a parent asking for 'books to expose my children to diversity,' that red flag word - 'diversity' is code for non-white or non-colonizer. Terms like 'diverse,' 'ethnic,' and 'exotic' are words white folks use to differentiate us from a white standard/norm. Same thing with 'differently abled' and 'special needs' - it's all rooted in the idea that we can't just call ourselves what we are, and we should be ashamed to be the other. People who use these terms must be handled gently, and they are liable to get violent when confronted with their bias. Step carefully.

You can find more posts about the savior trope (including books that smash it) in the facebook group by searching for the word 'savior.' Click here.

Don't even get me started about the allistic people who invite autistic people to the prom and then go viral for this act of benevolence (VOMITS EVERYWHERE.)

Made in China - Like a toaster! And just like a toaster, a Chinese girl can be comforted against all of the racism and bigotry she'll face growing up in the US so long as her adoptive parents love her enough. Wait that's not like a toaster at all. It's almost like adoptees are complex humans with feelings and memories. YIKES. What is this trickery!?

What Will You Be, Sara Mee? (Avraham) - Imagine a book where a white author doesn't make a dig at the Asian culture they're yanking babies from "Girls can be anything in America." (which isn't even true.) or fetishize our 'round moon faces.' That book you are imagining is not this book. The adoptive parents throw a doljanchi, a traditional ceremony with lots of gorgeous meaning and depth steeped in Korean history and culture, but they celebrate this 'prophecy game' (ew) in a weirdly shallow way. The whole story is centered on the older brother of course, not the baby celebrating her Dol. No but it's okay because this white author adopted a Korean daughter in real life so she can do make digs like this (also sarcasm.)

King & King & Family - De Haan - oh my gosh. oh my gosh NO. NO NO NO. These gay kings go to a jungle for a honeymoon and a brown child that fits all the wild savage racist tropes you've learned about in the Jungle Book sneaks into their luggage. They get home and are like "Welp, let's keep it because fuck the first parents and hey this is convenient since we wanted a baby!" And it's (not) okay, because now she's a princess (who has been kidnapped by ignorant monsters). Good thing you can just pick brown children out of the jungle and choose not to take them home without consequences!

Orange Peel Pocket - I hate this book so much. Read the rant here.

Coffee Can Kid - Adoptive dad just literally makes up some BS about what happened to his daughter's first mother. There's some colorblind bull about how this Asian girl's name sounds funny, and she's white now because she's being raised in white culture (nope. not how it works.)

Rice and Beans (Blevins) - Poorly written, racist, and at this point in the bookshelf I was just too burned out to take notes. Trust me, it's rubbish.

Click here to go back to the unpolished book collections main page.
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Quick & Messy Book List:

Adoptive Savior Parents

Lin's 'The Red Thread' is by far the most blatant and disgusting example, and we'll do an entire patreon video on this one. The others pale in comparison, but I'm listing others that I easily found by simply browsing the 'parent' shelf of our children's library to give you a sense of how prevalent this trope is. It's interesting that Asian authors can buy into this trope just as deeply as white ones and speaks to the way we've internalized white supremacy and bought into the white narrative.

Relevant: the mythic fairytale narrative of adoption and the way our US adoption systems continue to benefit white parents at the expense of traumatizing families of color and indigenous families and their children. And books that portray adopted children as wolves in sheep's clothing. And books (including many of my favorites) which erase adoptive/surrogate families. And how adopting or giving birth to babies of color will magically solve racism. Which I guess we'll have to get into later because that's a whole other set of things.

The Red Thread - Lin

My Family is Forever - Carlson - those slant eyes. oh my gosh.

Happy Adoption Day - McCutcheon

The Call of the Swamp - Cali - this one isn't transracial, it's transpecies featuring white parents and a mexican axolotl. The same tropes as in transracial stories apply, and you have to ask - who is this book supposed to be validating for? If the story is coding for what happens to 'the other' when they're rescued by nice white folks, it's a strange choice to make the animal a critically endandered Mexican axolotl, and personify it. While the original author is italian, someone translated this into 'swamp' despite the negative connotations of this word in English. That's an uncomfortable decisions, given the popular narrative of rescuing adoptive children communities of color and the spaces they inhabit - often given negative connotation themselves - barrios, ghettos, and gutters.

Zachary's New Home - this is cats and geese, but we still know the point isn't to give parents the resources they need to be good parents - it's to demonize first parents and take their kids away to be raised by 'good' people. Those geese - soooo white. Also this is not...how family placement works. yikes.

The Goose Egg (Wong) - Instead of getting a goose mentor for thier adopted gosling, the elephant parent paints themselves white (white face!) and pretends to be a goose. This is written by an Asian person. I am serious. Apparently one with no concept of how this codes with transracial adoption.

God Found Us You (Bryant) - That's right. God put your first parents through such unimaginable hell that they had to give you up, because he so desperately wanted to use you as a reward for being faithful to Him. Worth it! (Sarcasm)

Yes, I'm adopted! (Zinniger) - Beyond being bland and full of painfully bad verse, we see a first mother smiling as they hand over their baby to adoptive parents, like they are delivering a warm loaf of bread. Sure, this could work for the rare cases (if they exist?) when a first mother is totally casual about handing over the person they made, but um. Let's just erase all the stuff we don't want to think about!

Wild About You - We chose adoption because our FIRST CHOICE of having a biological child didn't pan out. Don't ever forget you were a door prize we settled for.

Wish (Cordell) - Adoption is about us. We parents. Us. It was so hard to get here. Can we talk about us? So hard, this journey. Our story. Much waiting. So hard. Let me tell you about it in this really boring baby shower book that will be really boring for kids to sit through. Why is this classified as kidlit?

Hattie Peck (Levely) she just loves collecting babies! It's a hobby! It's not about them - it's about her - what a hero! In the sequel, she brings them back and dumps them where she found them in a land where they are now strangers. Huh.

Night Out (Miyares) - There's no adoption in this one, it's just a sad orphan being pathetic. But that habit of appropriating the identity of an orphan to emphasize sadness and loneliness is gross. Stop.

My Real Family (McCully) - Designed to validate the jealousy biological kids are supposedly feeling when their family takes in an adoptive or foster child. Holy shit this is a mess. Just to be clear - there are books that do this without turning into a paper diarrhea. Starting with the idea that real parents = biological parents, the book just devolves from there.
*Also this isn't relevant but I'm getting some very interesting'Customers also shopped for...' The same folks who like this book ALSO like Christmas shape-shifting dragon erotica. Hey why not?

Jin Woo (Bunting) - Something about Asians just triggers Bunting's worst biases. In this one, white parents treat their Asian kids like pokemon. Gotta catch 'em all! However in the Amazon reviews, the REAL Jin Woo chimes in to leave a good review, which I have to admit is utterly adorable. Too bad about his parents.

Tell Me Again About The Night I was Born (Curtis) - I am at best, neutral about Curtis's acting chops but I really, really, really hate her as an author. This is another garbage book from her, another story about how adoptive kids are an inferior door prizes to biological kids and erasing the systemic issues that force first parents to give up (or have taken away) their children.

Sweet Moon Baby - Chinese parents are throwing babies in rivers because they would rather thier kids grow up with white folks. All the time. That's how it happens. And they're happy about it. And the Asian babies who grow up surrounded by whiteness aren't traumatized by this and there's not an undue burden on them to remember always to be grateful for saviors. Yep. (SARCASM.)

Baking Your Own Ally Cookies

Intersectionallies - the portrayal of 'allyship' is a little bit too close to saviorism for my liking - many of the 'actions' are rescue-y in nature, rather than actively stepping back to give visibility and boost the voices of marginalized friends.

White Saviors

This is all closely related to #SlaverywithaSmile

Sojourner Truth: Path to Glory (merchant) - Most books about Sojourner Truth really harp on the basic human decency of the Van Wagenens. This one goes above and beyond in focusing them and centering white perspectives and terminology. After reading this one, Q asked that we please stop reading books on slavery written by white men.

Sweet Land of Liberty - Hopkinson - Read more.

Phyllis's Big Test - Read more

My Two Blankets

Secret Signs (Riggio) - Books about slavery and the underground railroad that center on white people make me uneasy. To the author's credit, the protagonist is Deaf. But still.

Bodhisattva & The Turtle - The turtle is code for an Asian Buddhist monk. After the turtle sames some dude bro, the bro is like "Imma learn all this buddhism shit and come back and school you in it. Yer welcome." I'm paraphrasing. But seriously, this book is awe-inspiring levels of garbage.

Kunkush (not to be confused with Lost & Found Cat, which is lovely). Read more here.

Racism and Intolerance (Spilsbury) - This whole thing is garbage, but specifically we'll focus on the page where some East Asian people are fighting with brown-skinned Muslims and a white lady shows up to calm them all down and save the day. WHAT NO. The author then goes on to propose that donating to charities (which are never unvetted, corrupt, or channels for wealthy trusts and the people behind them to profit off oppression, nope nope) is primary solution to combat racism (HINT: IT IS NOT.)

Unspoken (Cole)- We don't even see the people this white girl is 'saving' - just eyeballs peeking out of floorboards.

Follow The Drinking Gourd (Winter) - On the plus side, it's a disabled white man who rescues people. Which almost makes it okay that all these enslaved people need a white man to tell them basic stuff like 'leave.' (Except it is still not okay.) I'm being hard on this book - it has its merits, but I'd still love to see it centered on the actual people fleeing, rather than the white accomplice.

John Brown: His Fight For Freedom - Hendrix - When a white militant anti-slavery radical gets violent and kills people to end slavery, he's a complicated hero with good intentions. Somehow white violence always justifies itself. Sigh. Seriously though - click through and look at this cover.

Wealthy Saviors

The Boy On The Page (Carnavas) he gives a homeless person a sandwich and then they are like, best buddies forever. Bless his heart.

I See You - Acknowledging that a homeless person exists AND a blanket! WOW! Someone give this kid a trophy.

Friends from the other side - Both the savior and victim are Latinx, but the story is narrated by a US citizen who takes pity on and rescues the pathetic undocumented citizen, who is also covered in sores because why not? Also the gratuitous use of ethnic slurs is...an odd choice.

Nondisabled folks rescuing incompetant disabled folks

Sometimes non-disabled saviors are celebrated not just for helping and including disabled siblings and peers, but just for being around them and not throwing a temper tantrum for no longer being the center of attention. The whole thing makes me rage. There are hundreds of these.

Dogs rescuing disabled people from a life of utter misery

Because if the popular narrative is to be believed, it'd be better to die of measles or whatever than live with a disability. Thank goodness pets distract us from and help us overcome our imperfections. There are SO MANY OF THESE. There's also a weird gendered thing going on with disability - for some reason it's safe to write about blind girls, but if a man or a boy needs a service dog, it has to be for a mobility disability or PTSD.

Rescue And Jessica - this one is particularly gendered and gross. The lingering implication in this is that Jessica just could not even and would have done something dramatic if she didn't have this dog. Her husband though - he could deal, even though he had been through the same violent/disabling experience. Because toughness.

Looking out for Sarah

Adults patting themselves on the back for seeing children as people

Maybe Something Beautiful (Lopez) - It's rare to find a dude so in love with himself that he'll write an autobiographical children's book about himself, but here it is. I thought this would be about the children's contributions, but it really revolves around him. I'm embarrassed for him.

Children saving elderly folks from the misery of being old

Trope: useless old people just can't be happy without young children to remind them that they aren't dead yet. The bigger issue here is that elderly people are erased from stories unless they're dying or senile. I'm working on a collection to combat ageism, which we will save for later.

A Fire Engine for Ruthie (Newman) - This is nitpicky, but we forget that 'traditional' values are all relative. Grandparents are just as likely to be progressive and open-minded as parents. But this story plays into the trope that Grandma is just too conservative to do things like let Ruthie play with a firetruck - in fact, she's actively oblivious and stubbornly ignorant in a way authors never depict parents. Sure, progress over generations is a thing. But we need to pay attention to the subtle messages stories like this continue to sell us. But whatever, Ruthie eventually opens grandma's eyes and helps her be less sexist, because we're supposed to assume that elderly people are unable to become open-minded as they age and keep learning.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

Paternalistic saviors 'rescuing' women

Also see: Basically all princess/super hero stories written before the 90's.

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Problematic Trope: Saviors - Raising Luminaries

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Image: Cover image from John Brown: His Fight For Freedom by John Hendrix. The image depicts (and I shit-you-not) a grizzled white man accompanied by two small, pathetic-looking Black children, he cradles one in his arm and there's an American flag and everything.] Quick Things You Need To Know: These are all problematic books.

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Lauren Rindeikis- Chapter 8: Competition

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Lauren Rindeikis- Chapter 8: Competition

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Hip Hop in the Classroom

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This story comes to us from our friends at the science desk. They produced the 7-minute video documentary you see above.
"Modern-day rappers - all they talk about is money, and all these unnecessary and irrelevant topics," says Victoria Richardson, a freshman at Bronx Compass High School. Richardson's rhymes tackle a much less-popular subject: DNA.

Richardson and her teammates were finalists at the Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. (Bring Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning and Engagement in Science) competition, where she faced off against other science rappers from nine different New York public schools.

"Science Genius is about harvesting the power of urban youth culture," says Christopher Emdin, a professor of education at Columbia University's Teacher's College who created the program. "Once they are able to incorporate the arts and their culture into the science content, they take it and they run with [it]."

The students researched and wrote rhymes about everything from gravity to evolution. Each school sent one group to the finals, where they were judged by a panel that included Wu-Tang Clan's GZA. (You can check out the finalists' lyrics here. Jabari Johnson, a senior, won the competition with his rap "Quest for Joulelry.")

This program is part of a national push to boost science education among minorities. A U.S. Department of Commerce study found that blacks and Latinos are half as likely as whites to have a job in science or engineering. Some educators hope that bringing hip-hop into the classroom can help change that.

"Science is something I always failed, which prevented me from getting into the specialized high school I wanted to go to," Richardson says.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Tom McFadden also teaches science through rap with a slightly different approach. His students pen rap battles about conflicts from the history of science.

"When you incorporate these stories, it allows you not only to make the scientific information much more fun to digest," McFadden says. "It allows you to discuss scientific process."

A group of seventh-graders from Oakland, Calif., worked with McFadden to create a music video about the discovery of DNA's structure. They nail the science, and also delve into the shady behavior of the scientists involved.

Hip-hop education is still in its infancy, and it's gotten some resistance; teachers are hesitant to set aside class time for experimental programs.

But Emdin says if the current system isn't working, you have to try something different.

"Not every student is going to be a straight-A student, and go on to college and declare a science major and be the next Einstein," he says. "But through this project we definitely are going to have more scientifically literate young people."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And now to a classroom in the San Francisco Bay Area, where seventh graders have turned another controversial early chapter in genetics into a battle with a beat - a rap battle - as we'll hear.

NPR's Adam Cole reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

ADAM COLE, BYLINE: Watson and Crick - they're the guys who first figured out that famous spiral structure of DNA. Before they came on the scene, no one knew what that important molecule looked like.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

COLE: That beat comes from Kanye West's song "Clique," but the performers are seventh graders Ray Goff and Jabar Murray. Along with their classmates at KIPP Bridge Middle School in Oakland, California they've been working for months - researching the story of DNA, writing rhymes and filming a music video.

Tom McFadden led the project. Equipped with degrees in biology and science communication, he's spent the past few years traveling around the world - visiting classrooms with his own brand of science-infused hip-hop.

TOM MCFADDEN: It's part of an every day thing that they do after school, during school, at recess, whenever. And if you can bring that into the classroom and connect that to other things that they're learning about, that goes a long way towards hooking students in.

COLE: With McFadden's help, students at five schools in the San Francisco Bay area have created rap battles about everything from plate tectonics to Pluto. And these are battles - lyrical arguments between ideas or people.

At KIPP Bridge, the fight really gets going when Rosalind Franklin, another DNA pioneer, shows up.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

COLE: That's Milan Gibson playing the role of Rosalind Franklin. Franklin took some X-ray pictures of DNA - and they showed that everyone had shape of the molecule all wrong.

Seventh graders Ray Goff and Kephra Shaw-Meredith explain.

: At first they thought the phosphate was inside the DNA strand.

KEPHRA SHAW-MEREDITH: And she figured out that there is phosphates on the outsides of it and it's BETA.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

COLE: And here's where things get unpleasant. Watson and Crick used Franklin's picture to build their Nobel Prize-winning model of DNA, but they did it without her permission or even her knowledge - and they didn't give her much credit. It's a still a controversial subject, even in KIPP Bridge's schoolyard.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: It's not really stealing because it says like...

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #2: I know, but he showed the picture, so like...

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: I know listen, that's stealing. That's stealing from what she did. And even though she was...

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #2: Claiming it as theirs?

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: Yeah, that's kind of stealing in a way.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #2: OK. I see where you're coming from.

COLE: Watson later derided Franklin as a belligerent feminist in his best-selling book "The Double Helix." Franklin couldn't respond because she had died of cancer years before. But in the song, she gets her say.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

COLE: There's some uncertainty about whether rapping in school improves learning, but science rapper Tom McFadden believes it helps students find a way into the material.

MCFADDEN: When you talk to the students about the science and the content covered in these songs, they really, really have strong opinions about it.

COLE: And McFadden hopes that kind engagement will spread. With funding from Hewlett-Packard and hundreds of Kickstarter backers, he recorded and filmed a song from each school. The videos go up on YouTube this week. McFadden hopes these science rap battles will make there way into other classrooms, and other students will argue about Watson and Crick on the playground.

Adam Cole, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSALIND FRANKLIN VS. WATSON & CRICK")

MONTAGNE: Classrooms all over the country are blending hip-hop and science. You can hear more songs and watch students in New York City battle for the title of Science Genius on our website, npr.org.

You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Science Rap B.A.T.T.L.E.S. Bring Hip-Hop Into The Classroom

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This story comes to us from our friends at the science desk. They produced the 7-minute video documentary you see above. "Modern-day rappers - all they talk about is money, and all these unnecessary and irrelevant topics," says Victoria Richardson, a freshman at Bronx Compass High School.

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Abigail Smith - Key takeaways from the conclusion

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Abigail Smith - Key takeaways from the conclusion

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Will you follow the techniques of past teachers or will you try something new if old techniques show to not be beneficial?

The way you view your students will effect how you teach them.

The longer someone teaches, the better they will become. Whether you choose to be a better teacher for your students, this is on you as a teacher.

Your success as a teacher in the classroom is directly related to how successful you think your students will be.

If you believe that your students are incapable of learning something, they will not achieve greatness. The students will only accomplish what you believe they can.

Lesson planning is important, but being able to break away from the lesson plan if needed is valueable.

Ask yourself "what is an effective teacher." Define this, then try your best to become one.

Avoid unhappy teachers who do not believe in their students, misery does love company.

Emdin, Christopher. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too (Race, Education, and Democracy) (p. 208). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.

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Emily Garite - An Interview with Christopher Emdin over "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Emily Garite - An Interview with Christopher Emdin over "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Christopher Emdin discusses his book "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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GUEST: Christopher Emdin, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. He is the author of For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... And The Rest of Y'All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education

BACKGROUND: Hollywood loves a good story about how a heroic and earnest young, white teacher single handedly saves an urban public school of poor black and brown kids by teaching them to fulfill their potential. But that fantasy is also what drives many well-meaning white teachers from privileged backgrounds to teach in poor schools. How well equipped are they really? And do they really end up helping more than hurting? Christopher Emdin has written a new book addressing those questions and exploring an innovative pedagogical approach that works.

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Emily Garite - A "Book Talk" over "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Emily Garite - A "Book Talk" over "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Christopher Emdin goes into detail of his book "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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“For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... And the Rest of Y'all, Too” - a book talk

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Emily Garite - Christopher Emdin describes his book "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Emily Garite - Christopher Emdin describes his book "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Christopher Emdin gives a brief glance into his book "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"

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Christopher Emdin - For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and the Rest of Y'all Too

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This video shows exactly what code switching is within the black community.

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What Is Code-Switching? | Between The Lines

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Gayla Taite - Twitter quotes and hashtags

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Gayla Taite - Twitter quotes and hashtags

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Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow.

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Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow. https://t.co/eLmz4OFi5u

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Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/eLmz4OFi5u
— Mrs. Stanfield (@Mrs_Stanfield20) October 14, 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow. https://t.co/eLmz4OFi5u

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow. https://t.co/eLmz4OFi5u

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Currently reading “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the rest of Y’all Too” by Christopher Emdin as part of a BCPS book study and this quote speaks volumes 🗣🔊 (Emdin, 2016, p.41). Ready to take this to my school family tomorrow.

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Gayla Taite- Twitter quotes and hashtags

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Gayla Taite- Twitter quotes and hashtags

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You can find many good quotes and conversation about the book through the authors twitter.

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Tweets by chrisemdin

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h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too

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h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too https://t.co/qk38RD7Kng

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h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too pic.twitter.com/qk38RD7Kng
— Amanda Potts (@Ahpotts) July 13, 2017

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h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too https://t.co/qk38RD7Kng

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too https://t.co/qk38RD7Kng

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h/t @WhiteRoomRadio From Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too