|
|
|
|
PREJUDICE-ENFORCING
EXPERIENCE
Robert
BACKGROUND
Sex: male
Ethnicity:
Caucasian
Born in:
Ankara, Turkey
Parents born in: Unknown
|
 I
was raised as a military dependent and I had cultural
experiences within cultural experiences. My larger cultural
experiences had to do with living in other countries. I was
born in Turkey. Afterwards I lived in these places in the
following order: Scotland, Illinois, Maryland, Japan (three
different places), Indiana, Monterey, and finally San Diego.
I think that living in other countries helped me really
appreciate the USA without devaluing other countries or
cultures. I think people who have never spent a significant
amount of time in another country miss an important
perspective.
My other cultural experience was while living on a military
base in Misawa, Japan. A significant part of the population
was African-American. So I didn’t grow up being afraid
of or separate from Blacks. I still feel a sense of surprise
when I realize how significant a rift there is in this
country over skin color.
When I was in
11th grade I went to anew school. For PE I took
swimming. I had had it for a year in 10th grade
and gotten an "A" so it was not a new or difficult subject.
But for some reason, perhaps because I was so small, my
teacher decided I belonged in the beginners' group. I
didn’t like that but decided that I would work hard to
improve (although I was already proficient at it). I even
stayed after school and had private sessions with the
teacher. I worked quite diligently and I expected a good
grade but was shocked to get a "C" on my next report card. I
asked the teacher about it and her response was, "You were
in the low group and that's the only grade I give to people
in that group."
From that point on, I decided that PE in general and
swimming in particular were useless activities rigged only
for "jocks" to succeed. I never went swimming again. In my
mind, no matter how hard you worked or improved you either
"had it" or you didn’t. No real learning or growth was
involved, just innate talent for a select few. More
significantly I extended my prejudices to decide that all
sports were useless because they didn’t really
contribute anything meaningful to society other than give
people an excuse to sit on the couch, drink beer and say
meaningful things like, "Woo,woo!" while watching a football
game. Baseball strikes, the size of player salaries (as
opposed to teacher salaries) and seeing players spit on
umpires and dance in end zones have only reinforced my
prejudices. Even writing about this makes me realize how
angry I was (and am) about the experience and I have to
consciously make myself aware that I am being prejudiced in
this area, projecting one person's behavior on an entire
system. The teacher never really let me know how I needed to
improve. She also never acknowledged my extra effort. In our
beginning swim I once swam the whole length of the pool
without lifting my head. But I knew the correct form and had
demonstrated it many times. Did she want me to swim faster?
Differently? I never really knew what I did wrong, which
reinforced my prejudice that success in PE was only for a
luck few.
BACK
TO MENU |
ROBERT'S
PREJUDICE-REDUCING EXPERIENCE
Top of Page
Home
| Power
of Teaching
| Believing
is Seeing
| Truth
or Consequences
| That
Was Fun
|
