How to Avoid Unintentional Slights Are you hurting some of the students you come into contact with by your assignments or language? Are you being unintentionally insensitive? Here are some questions to ask yourself. n
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Am I giving important tests or assigning something that can’t easily be made up on a religious holiday when some students are required to stay home from school? What is the Halloween policy at my school? If some kinds of costumes are not to be worn, am I sharing the policy with students, parents and discussing why in class? When discussing Thanksgiving traditions, like what people have at dinner, will all of my students have an elaborate meal? Do I incorporate contemporary Native American issues as well as historical ones? Can my students name any African-American leader other than Martin Luther King Jr.? Do they know about contemporary leaders who are African-American? Latino? Asian American? Native American? Do my students learn about female role models, heroines and leaders as well as male ones throughout the year? Do I allow my students to use any derogatory term in class? Do I help them understand and be comfortable with the physical, intellectual, emotional and cultural and other differences that exist among their classmates? Is my classroom safe for gay and lesbian students? How many students will be impacted if I assign an art project for Mother’s or Father’s Day? Am I sensitive to children from single-parent families or other kinds of families when I talk about families in general? What do I do to guide students who tease others or who are teased about being too fat or too skinny or too short or too (fill in the blank)? Are my expectations for appropriate and respectful behavior clear and do students learn from their mistakes?