The Race to Educate

By Theodora Malison

On Wednesday November 30, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. in McGuire Hall, Loyola University Maryland’s School of Education welcomed author and educator Julie Landsman for a lecture titled “What’s Race Got to Do With it? Engagement, Expectations, and Equity in Our Public Schools.” Amongst a full crowd of students and staff, Landsman discussed her experiences and reflections on the problems with race in the urban school systems.

“You have to claim your power as a teacher, you have to insist that your kids are going to do their work,” said Landsman. “Kids say to me that teachers don’t expect them to get their work in. They want their teachers to believe in them that they can do the work.”

Landsman also described a direct correlation with class size, and the diversity within the class room. She said that the myth of class size not mattering, in fact surely does, and that the kids of color, when given the chance, were able to perform just as well as those who were white.

“I think there are kids who want to go on to institutions like Harvard or Loyola, but they need a background,” Landsman added, “We have to juggle this. Kids aren’t getting any of that background like Shakespeare or Freud.”

Landsman taught in the Minnesota public schools for 25 years and has published two memoirs, “Basic Needs: A Year With Street Kids in a City School” and “A White Teacher Talks About Race,” and a book titled, “Growing Up White: A Veteran Teacher Reflects on Racism,” all dealing with her racial experiences.