Toronto Star series on hiring non-white teachers

On Monday, May 20, the Toronto Star debuted its three-part series on making faculty in Toronto’s schools more diverse. Right now, many schools are at least half non-white, yet only 20% of teachers are non-white. The University of Toronto is therefore trying to pitch to very young kids….middle school aged, hoping that one day, they’d become teachers too.

What bugs me is that the paper makes it sound like non-white kids don’t become teachers because they don’t see teachers of their own culture in the classroom. There were even fewer non-white teachers in the 1980s when I started school, and yet, teaching was one of my career choices until Grade 7. That was I wanted to be a lawyer, an on-and-off career choice (other career possiblities included writer/journalist, actress, country/folk rock singer and Broadway producer) until my second year of undergrad, when the LSATs kind of freaked me out (sure, I could have done the Australia route, but I didn’t want to be that far away from home). Wanting to be a writer/journalist continued (and continues to this very day), however. I also wanted to be a publicist (I even went to PR school for that). I was never influenced by anyone from my culture. In fact, wanting to become a writer/journalist was going AGAINST it. As was being a publicist (even though they make good money. I guess it isn’t necessarily “respectable” since you might be working with celebs. Even in the tabloid obsessed world of Hong Kongers). I do agree that kids need a boost, but do they really need role models from their own or from similiar cultures? Just because someone looks like the kids doesn’t mean that they can relate to them culturally. And yes, many people, white or non-white, automatically assume that they will. I also have a problem with sharing the same language or languages with certain students, speaking to them in that language. These students will be singled out by kids who don’t speak the language or languages as a teacher’s pet. Not good, especially in this day and age. You don’t want a kid to be bullied. Also, I’m not sure if a child will actually learn English as quickly this way, because he or she won’t have time to practice.

Part Two: Serving Students in Culturally Clustered Schools

Part Three: Where Teachers Learn Diversity (Wednesday)

Good Ol’ Boys and Old Boys’ Club/Network: NOT THE SAME THING

I’ve seen many posts around the Internet which seem to equate Good Ol’ Boys with the Old Boys’ Club, including this Wikipedia entry. This is NOT TRUE. Wikipedia’s definition of a Good Ol’ Boy (different from the previous link) is: Northern/Western-European descent, who lives in a rural area and/or subscribes to a traditionally “rural” lifestyle. The Good Ol’ Boy is synonymous with, yes, you’ve got it, WHITE TRASH.

Meanwhile, a member of the Old Boys’ Club/Network (not the Good Ol’ Boys’ Network….this doesn’t really exist) is the opposite. They’re historically white too, but these people are educated, wealthy and have influence in businesses, politics, etc.  Often, they have official organizations where they network (which is how they make connections and have an easier time moving up in terms of career). They are also main line Protestants (Anglican/Episcopalian, Congregationalist, Presbyterians, etc) rather than members of an Evangelical church. They generally come from certain schools. This term comes from the United Kingdom, where many top “public” (read: private and boarding) schools use the term “Old Boy” for their alumni. This term is also used in many Commonwealth countries. Also, many UK/Commonwealth girls’ schools call their alumnae, “Old Girls” and the term isn’t insulting to these schools’ grads. In fact, many are PROUD to be Old Girls of X school.

Do you think there’s a reason why people are confused? Or are only people in North America, where the term “Old Boy” and “Old Girl” aren’t generally used (especially in the US, since even Exeter and Andover won’t use Old Boys/Old Girls for its grads)?