I conducted my interview with a student at Longwood named Michael. He is currently a junior and has been here since he was a freshman. This interview was particularly easy, mostly because I expected his answers to be different as a man of color. While I realize that diversity is not prevalent in most areas the way it is in others, I feel that Michael and I had an extremely similar experience while growing up. I found that this interview surprised me because as a Caucasian woman, I did not expect a man, regardless of ethnicity to go through the same experiences. I believe that learning about one’s self is one of the most interesting and important things that we as humans can do. However, this is not implemented in our classroom curriculum.
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Examples of demographics include; your location, education level, gender, and age. Michael grew up in a populous city in the tidewater region of Virginia. His classes were predominantly African American’s and Caucasians. Interestingly enough, there was a similar mix of individuals that lived in the suburbs compared to individuals living in low-income housing. The ratio of men to women in his classes was very similar. I believe that the ratio of men to women in classes is not a definitive ranking of demographics because the class next to yours could have the complete opposite ratio number wise. In a smaller school with classes of twenty or less, I can imagine how this could factor in, though. He noted that his experience with the ratio of men to women in his lower education is extremely different to his experience with the ratio of men to women in college. On the other hand, coming to a college that was originally all women and now remains predominantly women, has a different ratio of men to women than other colleges. Demographics play a key role in classrooms. The only things you do not choose in school is who teachers you and who you will be teaching. Until you enter a classroom for the first time, you will not know how many girls, how many boys, how many are white, how many are not. I find this to be the best part of teaching because it is the one thing you will never have control
Examples of demographics include; your location, education level, gender, and age. Michael grew up in a populous city in the tidewater region of Virginia. His classes were predominantly African American’s and Caucasians. Interestingly enough, there was a similar mix of individuals that lived in the suburbs compared to individuals living in low-income housing. The ratio of men to women in his classes was very similar. I believe that the ratio of men to women in classes is not a definitive ranking of demographics because the class next to yours could have the complete opposite ratio number wise. In a smaller school with classes of twenty or less, I can imagine how this could factor in, though. He noted that his experience with the ratio of men to women in his lower education is extremely different to his experience with the ratio of men to women in college. On the other hand, coming to a college that was originally all women and now remains predominantly women, has a different ratio of men to women than other colleges. Demographics play a key role in classrooms. The only things you do not choose in school is who teachers you and who you will be teaching. Until you enter a classroom for the first time, you will not know how many girls, how many boys, how many are white, how many are not. I find this to be the best part of teaching because it is the one thing you will never have control