Although most teachers want parents to be involved in their schools and to help their children, she said, her mother rarely set foot in school because she didn't have time. She came to the awards ceremonies and once when she was in trouble, but never helped her with her homework. Her mother believed that her job was to feed and nurture her daughter and keep her out of trouble, but not to teach her geometry.
She also said that African-American students do not revere teachers as Asian-American students do and that teachers must earn their respect.
"African-Americans have an attitude that says, 'When you respect me, I will respect you,' " Ford said. When teachers seem detached or uninterested in their students, black students see that as a sign of disrespect, she said. Students who don't feel the teacher likes or respects them are then more likely to talk back and be disruptive, leading to a classroom that can be more out of control.
It is up to teachers, she said, to get to know their students and the backgrounds they come from so that they do not fall back on preconceived notions of what it means to be poor or black. Baltimore schools are more than 90 percent African-American and have a high percentage of children who qualify for federally subsidized school meals.
"The less we know about each other, the more we make up," said Ford, who added that a teacher's race doesn't guarantee understanding of low-income students.
One teacher said the advice would be valuable in the classroom, particularly for young teachers fresh out of college who lack experience in the city.
"I believe if you don't know me, you can't teach me," said Anita Heath, a Moravia Park Elementary/Middle School instructional support teacher. Heath said the teacher attack that had been videotaped highlighted that there was more work that needed to be done to prevent similar situations. "We have to break down barriers," she said.
Ford recalled her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Green, who greeted her tardiness in the morning not with a rebuke but by telling her how happy she was to see her and that she felt she couldn't start the class until she got there. The effect on her, she said, was to make her hurry to class every morning so she wouldn't disappoint her teacher.
On the other hand, she said, when she was sent to a private school where she was one of a handful of black girls, teachers questioned whether those good papers she was turning in were her work. She gained 75 pounds, became depressed and began writing suicide notes.
In the black culture, Ford said, movement and activity are encouraged in children, so when a child enters school and is told to sit still, be quiet and not move for hours, he is getting opposing signals from home and school.
Teachers should be conscious of this style and involve students in more active learning, she said.
She also said that teachers should understand some of the blunt, emotional and dramatic emotions of black girls as expressions of what they have been taught at home.
Several teachers in the audience said the session would help them in their work. "It was relevant, and it covered a lot of territory," said Marsha Fair, a teacher at John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle.
liz.bowie@baltsun.com
