Put Some Respeck On My Name!
Adam Levine-Peres is an educator from the Bronx who recently created a video stressing the importance to fellow educators that they should put more care into pronouncing their ethnic students names properly.
In the description of the video he writes “As an educator that has worked in the classroom, I have witnessed the worst butchering of Latino, Muslim and African American names.”
He also adds that “names hold ancestral importance for many people of color. Our ‘name’ bring with them passion, history & stories. It is sad when I say that students are forced to adopt to an ‘Americanized’ version of their name.”
He states that (at least) three barriers arise when teachers disregard properly pronouncing the names of their ethnic students. These barriers are distrust, lack of perseverance as well as lack of common courtesy. I mean if someone isn’t willing to go through the “trouble” to learn and properly my name, why would I trust them? Heck, I probably wouldn’t even like them.
My favorite part of the video is towards the end where he makes a interesting point. In reference to his fellow educators he remarks “we have a lot of other strategies on how to teach them (kids), but why don’t we have any strategies (on learning) as a teacher how to teach ourselves to better communicate with our students?”
Check it out! Let us know your thoughts. Have you ever experienced this from an educator? We’re you offended or didn’t it even matter to you?
