Casting Pearls (aside)

When I was doing my doctoral research on female scientists, I read a book by Eisenhart and Holland, Educated in Romance (1992),  an ethnographic study of women in Southern colleges of the time. The two authors chronicled the "getting your Mrs." culture that was common in these colleges (names of colleges were not given - I don't think W&M was among them). I was struck by a particular aspect of heirarchy the authors described, one that reflected what I thought was the superficiality of the whole "getting your Mrs." approach to education. Young women whose boyfriends bought them nice jewelry were held in high esteem by other young women in the college subculture. I told my husband about this and he started buying me at least one nice piece of jewelry for Christmas every year. After 38 years, I have a lot to choose from, when I put my outfits together!

Fast forward to teaching the science methods course and trying to give sage and practical advice to my young earnest students.  I think Dr. Gareis, when he was Associate Dean for teacher prep, recommended that students dress a "notch" better than the classroom teachers they were working with. Made sense to me, so I emphasized that with my students. I started telling the young women in science ed at W&M to tie their hair back or put it up. I also adopted a recommendation from Holland and Eisenhart, with a bit of twist. This recommendation was to wear pearls. I had read somewhere (can't remember where) that pearls can make a person look more mature. Thus, I started recommending to my students that they wear pearls when teaching, at least several times the first month or so, to sidetrack the too-friendly advances or somewhat disrespectful interactions of high school students who see their teacher as their peer.

Over the past five years I've been working to provide experiences that can help prepare teachers to teach in high need schools. We've added readings, discussions, assignments AND, lately, placements in high need schools. That placement in a high need school was where my culture bump came in.  I'd been to Hampton High twice last year and it seemed normal, like my middle school in Louisa County where kids were loud in the halls and adults stood in the halls shoo-ing kids along. Last week I went to HHS to see Emily and Rachel teach their lesson on the periodic table in Rachel's CT's classroom. Her CT, Ms. Ciancio, is a young, energetic, and, as I was soon to learn, insightful teacher.

We four were debriefing the lesson and everyone had given their feedback, when I asked Rachel and Emily if they had any ideas about how they could look more older when they were teaching next year, without the benefit of their CT's for backup. I was leading up to that venerable adage of wise old Dr. Matkins "wear pearls",  and feeling pretty confident in my ability to help Emily and Rachel transition to their career. Well, I got through the "put your hair up" and offered the "wear pearls" advice. That's when Ms. Ciancio interjected that she was going to have to disagree. and, she told the story of when she wore pearls and students commented on them. She didn't say exactly what the students said but I got the idea it was something like "so you think you're better than us?". Ms. Ciancio's story said that jewelry such as pearls emphasized the economic difference between students and teacher in a high need school. And, such a perception about a teacher could severely handicap efforts to form relationships with students.  I agreed with Ms. Ciancio, we completed the discussion, and I left, mulling over what I had just learned.

I realize now that I knew on an intellectual level what a school culture would be like, with students who don't have much. I've read LOTS on preparing students to teach in high need schools. I've supervised student teachers in Richmond City. I've worked with Hampton teachers for two years now. On a personal level, I realized that I was wrong about the pearls. The idea of adopting a faux high status persona through jewelry (remember Educated in Romance?) crumbled under the real ambition to help my students become teachers who are successful in tough schools - schools where they are really needed!  I know that there are probably other things I just haven't thought about, haven't realized, about the culture of schools such as HHS. What other things might I be wrong about, or might I be missing, in my lack of experience with the culture of urban schools such as HHS? Are things similar at Phoebus? At Kecoughtan? What are we doing that gets in the way of building a relationship with students like the ones at HHS?