The White
Teacher
Jeanette Seabury and Diane
Gillespie
One of the Critical Moments Case
Studies was published in the National
Teaching and Learning Forum and we have
been granted permission to provide it
here for you. The Forum has also provided
student responses to the case study.
As Dr. Swirl, Tonyetta’s English
professor, handed back the papers, Tonyetta
noticed that Dr. Swirl avoided touching
her. The freshman composition course
was small compared to her other classes
where she could barely see the teachers
from the back of the classroom let alone
come close to them. Tonyetta had first
noticed something about Dr. Swirl the
second day of class. She had tried hard
to be cheerful while not looking Tonyetta
in the eye. Tonyetta couldn’t really
pinpoint why her lack of eye contact
bothered her. Maybe she felt sensitive
because she was the only black student
in the class.
But Tonyetta noticed that Dr. Swirl
didn’t really look Maria in the
eye, either. With her accent and beautiful,
thick black hair, Maria was clearly
Mexican American. She was Tonyetta’s
only real friend in the class, but they
had never talked about Dr. Swirl. Even
today, Tonyetta thought to herself,
"Dr. Swirl’s not touching
me would be hardly noticeable to anyone
else." But Tonyetta had watched
her pat Gwen on the arm and laugh with
ease when she returned Gwen’s paper.
Tonyetta wasn’t sure why she had
distrusted most of her white teachers,
especially the women. They seemed different,
or maybe distant. She couldn’t
say exactly why; it was the feeling
you kind of came away with. These teachers
were not totally relaxed. They seemed
stiff and rigid. It was like they weren’t
really there, kinda icky. Not all of
them, but what seemed like the majority.
Tonyetta was cautious because she still
felt bad about a mistake she had made
in misjudging a white teacher in her
senior year of high school. She had
thought that Ms. Appleby had shown favoritism
to the three white cheerleaders in the
class because she always called on them,
and never called on many black students.
One Sunday, Tonyetta was stunned to
see Ms. Appleby at her church with a
black family. She watched her interact
with many of the other families in the
congregation at a lunch after the services.
She overheard her say to the pastor
that she had the most talented African
American students in the school, but
was trying to let them pace themselves
in terms of participating in class because
she knew how awful it felt to be put
on the spot. Tonyetta thought, "Oh,
shoot, she didn’t want to spotlight
us and I thought she was ignoring us."
Ever since then, Tonyetta had tried
not to let her initial suspicions run
her life.
Yet, Dr. Swirl was testing her. She
had given Tonyetta a C+ on the paper
that Tonyetta had written on Marcus
Garvey--her first essay for the class.
Dr. Swirl had commented at the end of
the paper that Tonyetta had not really
defended Garvey’s separatist views
very well. Tonyetta hadn’t said
anything about this comment because,
when she read about Garvey’s views,
she had been scared by Garvey’s
despair about living in the United States
as a black person. Tonyetta felt that
her paper may have been a little superficial
because she was afraid to plunge too
deeply into the implications of what
Garvey said. But when she got these
comments from Dr. Swirl, Tonyetta also
noticed for the first time that there
were no African Americans included on
her reading list. So Tonyetta wasn’t
sure whether Dr. Swirl knew enough about
Garvey to be critical of her paper and
was just finding something to criticize
her about or whether the paper was really
poorly developed.
After class, walking down the hall
with Maria, Tonyetta wanted to look
at her grade on the paper that Dr. Swirl
had just handed back, but she felt shy
about it. She would be embarrassed if
Maria got another C. But Maria had looked
at her grade and said, in a resigned
voice, "I can’t believe she
gave me another C-." Tonyetta found
herself really angry. She realized that
she felt kinship with Maria. She said,
"I was to unsure of myself to look
at my grade, but I’m going to now."
She pulled her paper out and had Maria
look. Maria said, "Well, you got
the C--with no minus." Tonyetta
was infuriated. She said to Maria, "I
didn’t write on a black topic this
time because I thought she was just
too threatened by Marcus Garvey, but
I see now that she’s threatened
by me. I mean, my god, she wouldn’t
touch me when she gave me back my paper
today." Maria responded and said,
"Yes, que cabrona!" Tonyetta
couldn’t speak Spanish but she
smiled because she knew Maria had cussed
Dr. Swirl.
Just as Tonyetta was feeling so relieved
that Maria had the same reactions to
Dr. Swirl, up came Gwen with a bouncy
step and smile and said, "How did
you do on your paper? Julie and I got
A’s; we really love this class.
Isn’t it neat?" Tonyetta knew
that not all of the white students got
A’s from Dr. Swirl because two
white students from her study group
got C’s on their first papers,
too. Tonyetta said, "Oh, really,
what did you write about?" Gwen
responded, "Oh, I wrote about the
different tennis tournament styles between
Britain and America. It turns out that
Dr. Swirl has a son who’s a tennis
player." Walking faster, Tonyetta
and Maria said, "We’ll see
you in class, Gwen." That night
Tonyetta called Maria and said, "I’m
really angry about our grades because
I don’t think this class is fair
to us." Maria replied, "Well,
what can we do?" Tonyetta said,
"Let’s schedule an appointment
together and take her our papers, and
see what she does." Maria asked,
"You mean challenge her?"
Tonyetta answered, "No. We’re
going to go see how she really is with
us when both of us are their together;
you know, whether she just tries to
brush us off or takes our concerns about
our grades seriously." Maria asked,
"Will you do most of the talking?"
Tonyetta replied, "Yeah girl,
I been talkin’ all my life. And
the first thing I’m goin’
to tell her is that she needs to include
African American readings in her class."
Maria responded, "Yeah, and Mexican
Americans too. My mom just showed me
a book she read in her English class
by Richard Rodriguez. I’d love
to be able to write about that book
cuz I disagree with him about bilingual
education."
When Tonyetta and Maria walked into
the next class meeting, Dr. Swirl was
busy handing out worksheets and talking
with other students. Tonyetta said quietly
to Maria, "We’ll just make
an appointment after class." But
as Dr. Swirl called the class together,
she asked the students, "How are
things going with the class?" Julie’s
hand shot up and she said, without waiting
to be called on, "I feel like I
am learning alot. The small group discussions
really make me think,and I like the
topics we are allowed to write about."
Tammy chimed in, "Yes, and the
editing groups outside the class are
really helping me improve my grammar.
I’m not so afraid to write anymore."
Clearly uneasy, Tonyetta and Maria
looked at each other. Tonyetta put her
hand up, but Dr. Swirl let Gary spontaneously
comment on how he would like more in-class
time for writing. Tonyetta raised her
hand again, and Dr. Swirl, hesitating
as she saw four other hands go up, finally
nodded at Tonyetta. Tonyetta said, "I
think that we should have more diversity
in our readings. There are no African
American writers, for example; no writers
who express and describe my experience
or Maria’s." "That’s
somewhat true, replied Dr. Swirl slowly,
"but good writing is good writing,
no matter what the author’s skin
color. Shouldn’t we judge the character
of the writing and not its color?"
Tonyetta couldn’t believe Dr.
Swirl had said this, but before she
could respond, Dr. Swirl told the class
to get in their editing groups with
their day’s writing. "We better
get back to work," she said hurriedly.
Tonyetta felt her spirit drop. On the
way to her small group Maria asked,
"Do you still want to go and see
Dr. Swirl for an appointment after class?"
Reprinted from The National Teaching
& Learning Forum, Vol. 6, No. 3
-A9-1997. Used with permission of James
Rhem & Associates, Inc. and The
Oryx Press,
4041 N. Central Ave., Suite 700, Phoenix,
AZ, 85012. (800) 279-6799. Annual subscription
prices: $39.00 for print, $32.00 on-line
at: http://www.ntlf.com
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