Racism Affects the Iowa City Community School District

Caption: On left, ICCSD Board Director and University of Iowa law professor Chris Liebig; on right in foreground, Henri Harper, former City High program director of Fastrack for at-risk youth; currently an Iowa City Police Department assistant outreach community service officer.

At the 1/19/2016 Iowa City Community School Board meeting last night, several African-Americans, including Director LaTasha DeLoach, a female professor whose name I didn’t catch, and Royce Anne Porter addressed the problems caused by institutional racism in the school district. I know there’s institutional racism in the schools because my grown children, both City High grads of 2001 and 2007 respectively, especially my daughter, brought home stories of white male teachers who were sexist, racist, or both.

The offenses were as little as repeatedly mispronouncing the name of a black student athlete (with an easy, five-letter, two syllable name) in class, which offense resulted in white students teasing the boy by mispronouncing his name as well (to make fun of the teacher, I presume, since the boys were on the same football team). But in other cases, the offenses were worse. A black friend of my daughter expressed her enthusiasm in a science class by using a phrase like “for real!” instead of a “white” phrase and the teacher put her down because of it.

Wouldn’t it have been smarter and more constructive of the teacher to have been inclusive and appreciated her enthusiasm for the material he was teaching instead of focusing on the fact that she wasn’t talking “white” enough? Sarah, our daughter, thought he was rude, sexist, and racist and didn’t like him one little bit for the slight to her friend.

Our daughter’s friend, thanks to a combination of poor parenting (she lived in our neighborhood and we knew about her home life) and racist slights in the school district, didn’t end well.

Director De Loach and others blamed and shamed the school district for allowing institutional racism to continue to exist. Royce Anne Porter made a particularly good point when she said she scored at an eighth-grade reading level at age nine and was still thought to be a slow learner in reading. A female black professor pointed out that she was in our school district 16 years ago and was mentored by only three teachers who encouraged her to go on to college and aim higher. She said if the school district hadn’t changed any since she was in school 16 years ago, she might as well leave before she had kids who would be going to the same school district she had.

So the other school board directors fell over themselves to declare their support for De Loach and to ask genuinely thoughtful questions about whether the equity plan is adequate and will it work? Do we have the right data and goals going forward?

De Loach said she was embarrassed by the performance of African-American students in the classroom. She wants change. We need change, but it must be a two-pronged approach. The school district can’t do it alone. Parents must be at least 50% of the solution.

Why? Because most brain development occurs between the years of 0-three years of age. Nurturing parenting, age-appropriate expectations of young children, and reading to young children are all things that caring parents can do to help their children be as ready as they can be for preschool at age three, at which point universal preschool should be available. It’s not, but Head Start preschool is available at neighborhood centers like Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) at 367 Southgate Avenue, Iowa City (319-337-5765) and at HACAP, 2441 10th St., Coralville, IA (319-351-1214) for the really poor, though nationally, Head Start has never been fully funded beyond 33% of those who are financially eligible and here, transportation is not available due to lack of funding. City of Iowa City transit service is available, however, to the Southgate site and Coralville Transit may pass by the 10th Street Coralville site.

My husband and I started reading to our first-born, Jesse, when he was still a baby under one year of age. It’s impossible to “spoil” a baby younger than a year old. Holding, hugging, and carrying a baby that young is the best thing for him. He also needs time and space on an uncluttered floor to explore his world and have toys to manipulate, because a child’s play is his work. That’s how he learns.

We were so poor that when Jesse turned three, we took him to Lutheran Preschool two or three days a week for $50 a month. When Jesse was two and in daycare his teacher told me that he didn’t know his shapes. I was embarrassed and anxious to fix the problem. I bought a Mickey Mouse book that taught young children their shapes. By the next day of daycare/preschool, Jesse knew his shapes.

While the school district gets up to speed, and I know it’s taking way too long, there is a lot that parents in all walks of life can do to get their young children ready to be intellectually, emotionally, and behaviorally ready to benefit from a structured school environment on the first day of kindergarten.

When I was a social worker, I was summoned to a small elementary school in Muscatine County and the principal told me that he had already expelled twin boys in my caseload. They had just attended their first day of kindergarten.

“Bring them back when they’re both on Ritalin!” the principal yelled.

“You can’t do that,” I explained to him. He seemed to have no clue that he couldn’t expel two little boys on their first day of kindergarten.

Granted, the adorable little blond boys were very active and curious, and had been allowed to run wild at home. But they weren’t impossible, just overly active.

Make sure when your kids come to class, they’re willing and able to learn in a structured environment. That’s change that you have control over today, tomorrow, and throughout your child’s most important developmental years. I’d say if you haven’t done a good job by the time your child is 14 years old, it’s difficult to make up for inadequate parenting at that point. Kids start paying a lot of attention to their peers and they pick out their peers based on how they’ve been raised or not raised.

You can raise your child or not raise your child; pay now or pay later. That’s your choice. That’s change that is under your control. Change that involves society as a whole and the Iowa City Community School District in particular takes longer and involves more people than just yourself.