Book, Head, and Heart Connections

    In our first book club book, New Kid by Jerry Craft, I discovered a few connections within myself, and life. This book hit several important issues kids face in this society, and climate, and can relate to, especially kids of color, with their white peers and teachers.

In the Book:

    Within the book Jordan was starting at a new private school that was predominantly white. he was one of a few black students at this school, and they experienced many racist comments and actions towards them. Jordan tells this story through his eyes, and his drawings of his journal to depict what it's like going to this school and how things are a completely different than what he's used to. The author wanted to write this story to highlight changes we go through, and how humans can have unconscious or completely conscious biases and racial tendencies whether they realize it or not. By calling him the wrong name constantly, accusing him of not being engaged in the school, and only being negative, when he was  just expressing his feelings in his personal journal, that you had no business reading were wrong. They just looked at him as a threat from the beginning, and some didn't even try to get to know him.

In My Head:

    I wasn't too surprised by some of the things that happened in this book, because I've experiences as well as know that the way some of these people acted is very real. Ms. Rowle, his teacher, really irritated me because she tried to insinuate that Drew called him a 'dog' when they were using slang that she didn't even try to understand and just made an assumption. Then when she found Jordan's journal to say that he was being a negative and against the school, and that him being at this school was special and  a blessing, and when Jordan asked why wouldn't she teach at a school in his neighborhood and she didn't really have an answer for that like he caught her in her lie, was just the icing on the cake for me. She had been so mean to him, and made him feel insignificant and that he wasn't worth getting to know, yet he had so much to offer, but he made her look at her own practices and bias towards students of color. I felt the author knew, we definitely know about racism and classism, in our society, people just play it off differently, some are more upfront about it, while others are more behind closed doors, he was highlighting this situation of no matter who you are, it shouldn't be this way. My thinking about this book was confirmed in chapter 1, when his parents sent him to this new school to have better opportunities than they did, because that's exactly why my mom put me in a private school, to have better opportunities than she did growing up, and knew it was a better environment for me. I noticed how some people were able to change when they had actual conversations and interactions with these people and got to know them, and not just assume one way or the other.

In My Heart:

    In my heart I felt this book spoke to me on many different levels, since it was relatable. it's a book relatable for people on both sides of the spectrum to reflect on who they are, and how they've been to someone who doesn't look like them or has the same attributes/features as them and are regarded as higher than another. This is a book I wish I had growing up, on how to handle those things, because when I thought people were being nice to be or certain comments they made were actually pretty rude and disguised as racism, but I thought these people were my friends, and I didn't want to believe they could do certain things like that. This book will help me be better overall and constantly remind to me look at myself and making sure that I'm treating my students the same.

What Have I Learned....

    I learned how my experience what very similar to that if what Jordan had experienced and that I could relate to what he was going through at times. It made me see both sides of the issue and how we have the power to change things, However, kids shouldn't have to not be themselves to fit in with society and not be seen as a threat, when they are in public, or accused of things because of their skin color. It relates so heavily to what is currently happening within our society and community today, as these issues have continued to be brought to the forefront. I just feel it's important to be aware of ourselves and the biases we may have.

    This book is great for kids to look at their practices, and teacher to reflect on how they treat their students. This book quite frankly goes beyond teachers and students, it fits in our everyday life and who we are as people and prejudice based on a societal system that has proven to be flawed, and are completely the furthest thing from reality and the truth.  It tells the story so that people don't feel directly called out, but makes them aware of their own actions, and hopefully causes them to reflect on them and how they should be agents of change for the future of our society. I would use this book in my classroom to educate my students on how we should be treating our classmates, and to make them aware that if I say something that offends them to bring it my attentions because there may be things that I say that offends them without realizing it, because society is changing so much. If I had noticed that students had been treating certain students a certain way this would be a perfect book to have a lesson on and help them understand that we may be different, but we don't need to dislike someone simply because they are different from us.