Rann Miller has a message for those trying to recruit and retain black male teachers: Let them teach. Don’t make them double as disciplinarians.
Miller started his teaching career with a class of 43 sophomores, he writes on Chalkbeat. It was a long first semester, but he “grew into my role.”
It was a combination of teacher, mentor, cheerleader, father figure, critic, guidance counselor, advocate, and even social worker.
. . . I developed a rapport with my students over time and I showed them respect. I earned their trust and collaboration, and that meant I rarely called down to the main office over a student. I did my best to handle things on my own. Being a Black man from Camden, like my kids, didn’t hurt.
But, as the only Black male teacher in the high school, which was nearly all students of color, Miller was asked to do more than other teachers.
Normally, a first-year teacher didn’t get a class of 43 students. The next semester, he was assigned freshman classes with more “challenging” students, because the principal said he could handle it.
I was given lunch duty with more passive teachers. Some days, I was the only teacher. Whenever there was commotion in the hallways and I was near, I was always asked to see about it and break it up.
Black teachers are a valuable resource, writes Miller. “Research shows that not only do Black students prefer Black teachers, but that Black students perform better academically with a teacher of the same race, that Black students are more likely to go to college when they’ve had at least one Black teacher, and Black teachers are less likely to suspend Black students.”
But turning black male teachers into enforcers will push them out of the classroom, Miller concludes.
He taught social studies for six years in Camden, then became an administrator. He now directs the 21st Century Community Learning Center, an after-school program in New Jersey. He blogs at Urban Education Mixtape.