When the new girl in school is the only one like her

Growing up, teacher-blogger A Daughter’s Geography was the only black student in her school. So she sympathizes with the new girl at the predominately black school where she teaches, whose parents are white and Asian. A Daughter’s Geography objects to some of her colleagues’ attitudes toward the girl:

After school, I overheard one of the teachers saying she was going to tell the girl’s parents to “get her out of here” because “our kids will set such a bad example for her.” I immediately objected to this. Saying something along the lines of it being great that she’s at The Middle School because young people need exposure, our school is disproportionately Black, let us be careful not to put Asian Girl on a pedestal in the exoticized/model minority trap. The teacher started yelling over me, “In her culture, their kids obey. They respect adults. She doesn’t need to be around our kids. They’re too nasty for her. She’s so sweet. She needs to be in one of those schools in Park Slope.”

The student seems to be fitting in pretty well and making friends easily, A Daughter’s Geography reports.

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