When I talked to administrators about the departures of good black teachers, I was told that students need diversity in order to receive a high quality education. The school principal, who is black, has pointed out that a majority of the teachers are still black — a higher percentage than at some other New Orleans charter schools. He also pointed out that students are not always privy to the reasons teachers depart, and some might have chosen to leave.
Students do need diverse educational experiences, but that diversity doesn’t need to be about a teacher’s race. Hiring more white teachers is not the best way to improve education for students, particularly students of color.
Mr. Allen provided his students with diverse learning experiences by engaging them in many different ways. Some days we read and took notes, some days we watched video clips and had open-ended discussions. He understood not just a variety of teaching methods but also the city of New Orleans and its many different problems and inhabitants. While Mr. Allen could have become a teacher without this insight — as many young (and often white) arrivals here have done — it better prepared him to teach and connect with students. He talked openly, for instance, about his own experiences growing up in New Orleans. And he used language and cultural references that we recognized to challenge and inspire us, including quoting a song by rapper Gucci Mane. Mr. Allen raised the self-esteem and confidence of his students in all of his classes, and he gained the respect and trust of his students to a degree that allowed him to keep our attention and focus on what we were learning. This was something that many teachers, both white and black, have great difficulty doing.