Once a week, the HRS Headmaster sends out a Headmaster's Letter that we all receive by email. In it, we find out who's decided to leave the school and who will take their place. There are always announcements for different workshops and conferences included. I usually give a cursory glance to the latter but just before Spring Break, there was an announcement for the 2nd annual Asian Educators Alliance to be held April 21-22nd at Lick-Wilmerding High School. In the past, I would have dismissed the thought of even attending. But for some reason, I was drawn to the idea of attending and so with the aid of the Math Department Conference Budget, I sent in my registration form and fee.
The critical question that kept rearing its head in my mind was why I was so resistant to the idea of attending something like this? The former reaction was not one of simply ignoring the conference's existence, but I would have turned my back on it. My conjecture as to why I slammed the door on even addressing my being Asian in the teaching profession within the Independent School world was twofold. First, I used to (and perhaps still to a degree do) associate affintity groups as a place where those students who belong to that group weren't able to assimilate to the culture of the school. Secondly, because I never really felt as if I were left out (little did I know that I totally was clueless as to an entire life of my class that I wasn't privy too) or treated unfairly or even misunderstood, that I therefore had no need to attend anything that identified purely by affinity group.
So there I was at 5:00PM on a Friday afternoon sitting in my small group or 15 Asian educators sharing our answers to the two questions, A) When did you decide to be a teacher? and B) How was it when you told your parents? As I sat there and listened to the answers of other people, I began to ask myself, "what is my role as an Asian teacher in that do I have some inherent responsibilities?", "am I automatically supposed to teach the Asian experience or perhaps my experience? Lastly, I wondered "what does HRS want to get back from having a teacher with my face on their campus? If I am able to start answering these questions, or at least know how to study and address them, before the conference ended, I would be truly excited.
On Saturday morning, we started in the same small group of 15 and we were sharing our feelings on "how we identify with the term Asian-American educators?" As I listened to the others answer, I came to the realization that my answer to the question at hand, might answer one of the big three questions I posed myself at the end of Friday. My answer was that I could use my Asian-American heritage to help all students who live in the dual worlds of school and home. I find that I am able to help students navigate through certain situations in which what the school said contradict one another. In addition, I'm not sure that when the school hired me that they overtly were presenting to the Asian (and other non-white minority) students the idea that they too could grow up and choose teaching as a profession. On a more global level, students can be whatever they choose to be. As I reminisce about my high school years at Lakeside, I had all Caucasian teachers for my five major courses for each and every one of the four years I spent in high school. I didn't think that teaching was even an option for someone like me.
Looking around my small group, I was struck by the ratio of female to male was about 5:1 or 6:1. Then looking across the entire group later on, there just aren't many Asian men choosing teaching as a profession. Why?
For the first workshop, I chose one entitled "Asians Are Elemental! Moving beyond tokenism in our schools". What we wanted to understand is that to make Asian issues and stories a true part of a curriculum by integreting it into the main curriculum and not just a supplemental add on at the end. Our presenters were humanities teachers who had found ways to bring this multicultural knowledge. For History teachers, class doesn't need to ordered chronologically, but with themes or patterns that will give students a context for what they are studying. The English teacher also has designed her courses on on themes.
The keynote speaker of this conference was Gus Lee He told great stories but admonished us teachers to 1) Honor All Persons 2) Seek Social Justice 3) Demonstrate Courage under Great Present.