<p>That’s not cocktail party conversation, that’s a form of putting the student concerned on the spot for no good reason related to the curriculum and/or his/her demonstrated bad behavior. In my book, that’s far far worse. Especially considering we’re talking about K-12 students who are still legal minors. </p>
<p>I can also imagine the local school legal counsel getting nervous about potential EEOC/student discrimination liability arising from his behavior. </p>
<p>It also sounds like this substitute has very little imagination regarding engaging his class.</p>
<p>It isn’t a matter of hiding it, Bay, which a student of African descent is going to find hard to do in any case. You can be very proud of your heritage and still not want to be asked out of the blue for no discernible reason where you are from when other students who look different from you are not - especially if the answer to that is “New York” or “LA.” </p>
<p>One of my childhood friends and I were born a few months apart in the same hospital. She has an ethnic Indian name, and her parents were immigrants. I have a European name; my grandparents were immigrants. Asking her where she is from and not me isn’t appreciating her interesting cultural heritage, as there is really nothing that makes her heritage intrinsically more interesting than mine. I just happen to come from an ethnic group that “passes” as stereotypically American and she doesn’t. The only effect of the question is to normalize my background and treat hers as unusual. I don’t think the question is malicious, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying that a classroom discussion on student’s backgrounds wouldn’t be a valuable teaching and learning experience. That wasn’t what was going on here.</p>
<p>Ok, well OP did say that the middle eastern, Indian and some Asian kids were also asked the question, so it wasn’t just the student with the Nigerian name who was asked. The teacher may very well be racist towards everyone who is not white, which I assume is the unspoken reason why some want his actions to have consequences. I don’t know why some are beating around the bush on that.</p>
<p>Bay–it would be called pointing out what’s going on (that, whether out of malice or not, the teacher is treating two groups of students differently). Doesn’t mean he means to, there’s lots of reason why he might, but the bottom line is he’s setting apart students on account of ethnicity. </p>
<p>Edit: Hey, that he might be racist may well be the answer. But I’ll also give him the possibility of clueless</p>
<p>Really Cobrat? Legal council? I sub all the time and to me this sounds like the sub was trying to break the ice and trying to be friendly. I really doubt this teacher was behaving so badly that a lawsuit could be even thought about. How much class time are we talking about? Was it the first 10 minutes or the whole class period? I will say that I’m glad I don’t sub at your schools. We can talk to the kids like they are neighbors and not be walking on egg shells all the time. I do think the bigger issue is that the sub did not follow instructions. A good sub can talk to kids informally and follow lesson plans. I also still think the sub was more curious than evil. Then again, I try to look for the good in people, not the bad.</p>
<p>I think you are making some unfair assumptions by using this example. If the roles were switched; ie. you were born in India and were asked by an Indian, “where are you from?” would you find this to be offensive? You take examples to the extreme. There really do exist people who do not know much about others of different races, and are genuinely more interested in their backgrounds than those of their same race.</p>
<p>Reading an attendance list in any context can be interesting, and I do enjoy reading names. The op didn’t indicate that the teacher singled out by race, just by unfamiliarity of names. I don’t think it is weird to wonder about names. It might be strange to act on the curiosity but it is certainly not a big deal</p>
<p>How many of us are really familiar with the complex surnames from Africa? I worked with a group (an intelligent, sensitive and curious group) that included many whose families originated in African countries. As well as some of the SE Asian countries, where names are unfamiliar. If we didn’t already know, we did ask. No one took offense. It offered an opportunity to interact.</p>
<p>I don’t know that this was the best use of class time. But, as said, we’re talking minutes. The question about politics could have been saved; it puts a kid on the spot.</p>
<p>No one could pronounce my grandparents’ surname, except folks from that corner of the world. No big deal. People asked and we answered.</p>
<p>My d student taught in a school with a very big Liberian population. Some of the names were very different from the names she had previously been familiar with. I like names. I enjoy reading the birth announcements in the local paper. I get a big kick out of counting how many Giannas were born in a particular week. My son now goes to a school with a very large group of italian immigrants. There are many names that cross my radar from the school that I wouldn’t begin to know how to pronounce.</p>
<p>absolutely, zoos–I love names; I’m insatiably curious about people. But I’d ask all the kids with the unusual names, not just the brown and black ones. If I was going to, that is. In this situation, I’d curb my curiosity.</p>
<p>The OP described a pattern–that’s where the question comes from. If it were just her, it would be different. (but asking her about the politics of her family’s country of origin, that’s problematical in itself. Is he asking the Jewish kids to weigh in on Israeli issues? I’m going to guess not. rightly so.)</p>
<p>Nearly 30% of CA residents are foreign born. So asking anyone in this state, “where are you from, and I don’t mean where do you live?” would be a legit conversation starter.</p>
<p>Garland, the op didn’t say that black and brown kids got asked, he said that people with non “white” or asian sounding names got asked and the group of kids with such names turned out to be African, middle eastern or Indian. It isn’t like he pointed at every kid of color and asked “what are you.” Depending on where in Asia a person’s name comes from, it can be easy to pronounce. Some Chinese, Korean and Japanese names, as examples, can be spelled and pronounced in English pretty straightforwardly.</p>
<p>Likely to be dark skinned is not the same as targeting kids known to be dark skinned. Te op specifically referred to the sound of the names. Also, a lot of Indian and middle eastern people are extremely fair.</p>
<p>“Targeted?” Agree w/ZM, perhaps they had the unusual names. Perhaps he’s familiar with the eccentricities of surnames from parts of the world we’ve had longer term immigration from. Did he question darker skinned kids with simpler names? Is this about racism, for heaven’s sake? Or curiosity and some indulgence of this?</p>
<p>Sometimes, we jump right to dastardly assumptions.</p>