PERU: Reflecting on the Teacher

"Tell us about your culture."

​This was the hardest question for me to answer. Do I answer for the country, for my state, my hometown, my racial subgroup, or…just…my family and I? All have distinctive differences; none of these approaches can cover it all. What would you have said? No matter how I chose to answer, I felt an overwhelming pressure to “get it right”. I wanted to make sure I didn’t play into negative stereotypes or present myself as biased. I didn’t want to come across as negative, but what if the truth isn’t as cheery as we’d like? I realized that I may be the only African American female that many may ever meet in person and this gave me an even greater sense of duty. I had this on my heart in addition to being wary of offending anyone I met. It’s so difficult to be yourself and be open when you’re this burdened. Nevertheless, I managed to tell my truth, various truths, and I learned much about myself in the process. 

Teaching seniors in a IB Literature course.

​“Lesson 1”
Your truth is still the truth. Whether it’s the desired narrative or not. I learned to embrace this maybe by the third time I was asked about my culture. My disclaimer was that the USA is a tossed salad of diversity where people have all kinds of beliefs, values, and traditions. I told them about the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas being major American holidays, but that they are celebrated uniquely or not at all by many Americans. I told them about our flag and mascot but explained that each state had their own symbols to represent them. I bragged on how North Carolina is famous for pork BBQ, but I also warned them that they’d get something totally different if they ordered the same thing in the Midwest. I described being raised in a family that practices a culture of respect for elders and authorities. I shocked them with my status as an only child and intrigued them with other personal details including but also beyond my appearance. What they wanted to know about the most was how my experience and views may be different as a black woman. What do you like to be called? Is the “N-word” offensive? Do you ever experience racism? What do you think about Trump? How did you get your hair like that? Their curiosity caught me a little off guard, but I felt honored that they cared to get my American narrative as an individual since my own country at times doesn’t value minority voices. My willingness to open up, in spite of the risk of misunderstanding, gave me the opportunity to teach Peruvian teachers and students about American race relations, the civil rights movement, body art, box braids and more! I gave Greensboro, NC a bigger spot on the map by introducing them to the Greensboro Four. I gave them several stories that they may not get anywhere else, so I hope that it gave them a broader view on the American experience.
“Lesson 2”
Pain and perseverance are universal. Traveling means you get to meet people with no prior knowledge of the struggles you have faced. A fresh unbiased ear and a compassionate listener can validate your experience like no other. The beauty of humanity is that we can find common ground with strangers because of the familiar emotions we connect to when we share our stories. Although the plight of an African American family was an age old story they’d never heard, many students and teachers immediately found parallels in the treatment that the natives of their land faced at the hands of the Spanish conquerors and colonizers.
Common themes in the human experience across cultural lines are an excellent tool for helping students find ways to relate to other students in distant lands. It is important that we don’t attempt to compare or rank our respective suffering but instead just choose to respect each other’s strength and resilience. Representation matters in the curriculum, but as the instructor, we should guide students into a perspective shift that enables them to find the humanity in others that don’t look like them.

The Teachers for Global Classrooms Peru Crew at the Fulbright office in Lima.

“Conclusions on the Teacher” 
​​My students, all students, have something to learn specifically from me. My experiences in Peru helped me to take more pride and interest in the uniqueness of my American experience. Whether the student was born here in the states or elsewhere, my life experiences and paradigms are valuable parts in the quilt of “our culture”. Why not tell parts of my story in my English class? Why not diversify the narratives of my supplemental selections to represent the rainbow that is humanity? Let’s study the biodiversity of a foreign neighborhood, while also teaching students to be problem solvers on their own block. The truth can vary, but it’s all worth knowing.