<p>But that’s what she heard. And that’s the problem…chicken or egg?</p>
<h1>160 Yes, it is. :)</h1>
<p>The sub requires certain students to explain why/how they ended up in the class. This may be a loose interpretation but I don’t think so. Where do you come from? How do you happen to be here? = completely different than How do you pronounce your name? </p>
<p>This stretches my brain. Apprenticeproff will be able to explain the theory stuff.</p>
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<p>Lookingforward,</p>
<p>IMO, the OP’s sub issues are inappropriate venue for the class/topic<em>, manner in which the question was asked(singling out those with foreign sounding names rather than encouraging full participation…including himself), and especially putting OP on the spot with the political question related to Nigeria.</em>* </p>
<p>There’s also the fact there’s an uneven power dynamic vis a vis teacher…even a sub and in this case…his students including the OP. </p>
<p>This is something he should have been mindful of and been trained on as issues like these have been covered extensively in most teacher certification/M.ED programs/textbooks my friends and relative took/used while getting trained to become teachers from the mid’-90s until the last couple of years. </p>
<p>There’s also a gulf of difference between asking such questions in a relaxed social occasion among equals than being asked about it/singled out by a teacher in class, at a job interview***, etc. </p>
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<li>OP mentioned the regular teacher had already prepped materials to cover the topic of the Constitution…not the history of US immigration.</li>
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<p>** That would definitely get a student-teacher in some areas I know of “strongly counseled” by regular teachers/admins nowadays according to teacher friends. </p>
<p>*** Lines of question my labor lawyer friends would strongly advise the HR/hiring managers at their firms against doing to avoid liability from potential EEOC/employment discrimination claims.</p>
<p>And no one really thinks the minority shouldn’t be at the synagogue either, but by asking the question, whatever else you may intend by it, you are implying"you, unlike all of the other people in this room, are “unusual,” so naturally, I need an explanation for your presence." And of course, the person IS unusual, for that particular setting, but that doesn’t mean he or she wants to be reminded of this or asked tiresome questions every time he goes to pray. </p>
<p>If your portion of California is really the racial utopia you present it as, Bay, I’m not sure why the question would even need to be asked in that way. It would just be taken for granted that there are a lot of different kids from a lot of different backgrounds. Sometimes, it might be interesting to discuss those differences. Calling the roll isn’t one of those situations.</p>
<p>Alh:
“Made to explain themselves-?” Or “requires certain students to explain why/how they ended up in the class-?”</p>
<p>WTH? How about: and every time he sees a name that is not “normal” sounding, he asks about their ethnicity.</p>
<p>I think there is some serious projecting going on.</p>
<p>OP also mentioned that the sub is a nutjob. At some point kids need to learn to live with the fact that there are nutjobs. Mine learned this early. We live happily whilst surrounded by a plethora of nutjobs. Sometimes it’s internal.</p>
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<p>Not projecting. An observation from a direct quote from the OP post here:</p>
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<h1>165 LF:
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<p>^post 1, Sweetcupcake</p>
<p>crossposted with cobrat
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<p>Momzie way upthread (post 30) suggested various answers to the question: Where are you from? Garland, I believe, and others pointed out the teacher/student relationship is unequal and the student is perhaps not able to ignore the question for that reason.</p>
<p>This is a high school class. I would imagine that there could be foreign exchange students. Do you think the sub could have thought that some of the students were foreign exchange students and was curious? Did he ask African Americans their nationally or just recent immigrants from Africa? I am sorry but I really don’t think there is anything much too this. And speaking as a sub ( and a darn good one), we do get friendly with kids. Teaching works better that way. I have kids who will talk to me and not to their teachers because they know I am not as involved in their daily dynamics. I have kids come up and talk to me in stores or on the street. Most of the subs I work with enjoy the kids and have fun with them. Relating to people is part of education. And to whomever asked- I teach in the elementary grades and middle school and in high school, I usually give tests or show movies. High school teachers do not usually expect someone to have deep knowledge of their subject. And by the way, I have a funny last name and people think I am native American or something else.</p>
<h1>164
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<p>^^I agree. This is the biggest issue for me.</p>
<p>I know plenty of African Americans with the last name Smith and Jones. Would they have been asked? My cousins are half Asian with O’Irish last names, would they have been asked? Probably not from the sounds of it. Just those with unusual last names. </p>
<p>From the description this sounds much more like a curiosity than a racially charged accusation and NOTHING in the range of suggesting they shouldn’t be in the class.</p>
<p>I agree it was probably just misguided curiosity, but it was curiosity that required the OP to explain where she/he is from, and be questioned about the politics of her/his parents’ former home country. That doesn’t mean the sub suggested she shouldn’t be in the class. But the sub did ask for an explanation. imo</p>
<p>Wow, I never expected so many people to comment on this thread. To clarify a few things:</p>
<p>Yes, I was born in the US. I live in the Northeast. Reading these comments, I think I just should have told him the US state where I was born (which happens to where I still live). Although, even if I did say that, that would have probably resulted in a follow up question. The other kids who were asked just gave him the answer he was looking for.</p>
<p>For the record, I do follow up with Nigerian current affairs. I knew what the sub was talking about, but I wasn’t about to have that conversation with a complete stranger, in front of the class, after I had already labeled my self “the Nigerian Kid”.</p>
<p>I agree, "normal is a very relative term, and probably not the right one to use. I didn’t know a better way to express the sub was following a pretty predictable pattern. I tried to illustrate that is my example, where “John Smith” wasn’t asked but I was.</p>
<p>Edited to Add: the sub did not ask African American with “normal” names (see my explanation for the term above) In this case there was only one other African American kid in the class.</p>
<p>The Sub did not ask me, or anyone else about pronounciation. I don’t think that was the information he was after, tbh.</p>
<p>^Did you feel he was targeting certain members, asking their ethnicity as a way of “making them explain themselves?” Or, in any way, suggesting you and the others did not belong there? If you had been asked this question elsewhere, would you have had a similar reaction?> </p>
<p>Or, is this about the general intrusiveness during class and the time not spent on the lesson plan?</p>
<p>It was a sub. That usually means a free-period at my kid’s schools.</p>
<p>I can’t be 100% sure on these things, but I thing his tone was a little more aggressive than someone who was merely curious. There was a bit emphasis on the “YOU” in “where are YOU from?” I happen to be friends with the middle eastern girl who was asked, and one of the Indians, and they were unconfortable too.</p>
<p>You sound intelligent and it’s clear you are trying to process the incident and your own/friends’ reactions.</p>
<p>Btw, my quoting you in 165 was not to imply anything about your phrasing. Just to show how far we strayed from the original comments.</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
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<p>Misguided or not, the sub’s class wasn’t the appropriate venue for satisfying it…especially in the manner he went about it. </p>
<p>Other commenters have commented on how he could have altered the manner in which he went about it so the OP and most likely other singled out students wouldn’t have been placed in an uncomfortable position and in the OP’s case, on the spot with that political question. </p>
<p>That’s also an exceedingly odd way of “trying to be friendly with one’s students”. </p>
<p>And I speak as someone who did serve as an tutoring instructor and a substitute…albeit the latter was in a community college with 2 sections of 50-70+ students. </p>
<p>Granted, instead of trying to “break the ice” I took the approach of writing up and implementing my lesson plan on the topic my friend was supposed to cover that day and considering the feedback I observed and later heard from the friend and his department chair, it sounded far more positive than OP’s sub. I’ll admit, however, that the OP’s sub set an exceedingly low bar standardswise.</p>
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<p>The problem with this reasoning is that in reality, coming to America from somewhere else is not only not unusual, it is pretty much expected, unless you are of Native American heritage. Some people, of course, are more recent immigrants, but the idea that a teacher would not know that literally millions of people immigrate to America every single year, and thus the fact that there may be several recent immigrants in a class is something “unusual” in his mind, is ridiculous. As is the idea that he is implying that a particular student must “explain her presence” at school, which of course, every minor child resident in the US is required by law to attend. You are really stretching to demonize this man’s intentions.</p>
<p>When you said that the teacher emphasized the word you, “where are YOU from” I would have taken it as a hint that he wanted to be asked about himself.</p>