The dangers of perception

I think that as teachers we all need to take time to game plan our disciplinary approaches as teachers. They need to be anti-oppressive and implemented in a fair way. I think that a lot of time our perceptions of our students often drive us into dangerous attitudes about our students and their behaviors. By relying on the perceptions that urban students in particular black males are violent and problem children then we run the risk of labeling them with a stereotype that serves no good purpose. By doing so we only continue the fear mongering that we see in the media about school violence. By taking a step back to reflect we as educators can make our own opinions about our students that are fair and accurate without using stereotypes and prejudices.