"How come there are no brothers on that list?"

Kathy Jervis's article, "How Come There are No Brothers on That List?" reminded me very much of the environment of the classroom I was in for my field experience for Currins 100. I was paired with the teacher of my college night class and had an amazing experience because he was so concerned with the issue of race and getting his students to talk about it. He never shied away from it with his own 4th grade students (even though he was white and they were all black) and forced the issue at night when the college students got together. He was able to have these discussions because no ones opinion's were considered right or wrong so long as what everyone said came from a good place. As long as no one was intentionally trying to offend someone their voices were allowed to be heard. Of course, things were said that others thought may have been ignorant, but the person wasn't faulted for these views simply because they hadn't had the opportunity to expand their world view and see things from a different perspective. Having these discussions allowed us all to expand the way in which we thought about the issue of race and hear many voices different from our own from people who have had vastly different experiences from ours. This article helped to reinforce the lessons I learned in Currins 100: that students want to talk about race and it is definitely a conversation worth having.