Inside Bakari Ali Haynes's classroom at John F. Kennedy High in Silver Spring, several African American boys were waving their hands for a chance to answer a question. This was all the more remarkable because Haynes teaches English -- a subject not generally regarded as cool among such students.
"How many of you thought of a childhood memory and wrote about it?" Haynes asked his ninth-grade class Friday. That's when the hands shot up. Only a week into the school year, Haynes had established his classroom as a place where black boys felt comfortable participating and had no need to slouch and hide in seats on the back row.
"I relate to them," said Haynes, 28, who is one of the rarest kinds of public school teachers: an African American man. "I can pull out examples from my own experience to let them know that I was once in their shoes. That helps us bond. Then they are ready to enjoy my class. Getting them to enjoy learning, that is the key." [...]
| Continue Courtland Milloy's registration-required Washington Post column "A Black Man Works Magic in the Classroom"
posted in articles on September 5, 2004 12:16 AM | t (0)
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