People Before Differences by Chloe

People Before Differences by Chloe - September 2023 Scholarship Essay

If the world was a perfect place, everyone would be treated equally. People of different races would be seen as equals. People with physical differences such as autism and disabilities would be seen as equals. People like to say that that’s how the world is, but it’s not. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’ve made a lot of progress in the past 60 years, but progress does not equal perfection. Conway High School is an amazing school, but it’s not perfect. Students of all genders and races can feel bias cast upon them by certain teachers. I believe that eliminating this bias is the way to improve any social setting, especially one where young adults are preparing for the world ahead of them.
It’s so normalized in today’s society to see people’s differences before their personalities. Whether this is difference of opinion or a physical difference, these things separate people. I see this every day at my school. Teachers pick favorites. This isn’t uncommon, and is not a bad thing, unless the basis of the teacher’s favoritism is based on differences. I understand liking students because they follow directions. I’m a preschool gymnastics teacher at Sonshine Academy in Conway, Arkansas, and I understand liking students because they listen. When a kid listens to me, it obviously makes me like them. When a kid doesn’t listen to me, it does might it a little more difficult to like this kid as much as the others. This is just how humans are. I don’t see this type of favoritism as an issue because it’s based on the kid’s decision. It’s in the student’s control to listen or not, therefore, the type of favoritism is based on behaviorism and not differences.
What I want to change, is the type of favoritism that is based on differences. Some teachers pick favorites based on gender. They’ll treat the girls in the class differently than the boy and visa vera. This makes the ‘disliked’ gender feel powerless. Unlike favoritism based on behaviors, this type of favoritism cannot be changed by the student. It is not in their power. They have done nothing to be made to feel this way, except have a certain gender. Sadly, this is more common than uncommon. In the Sixth grade, I had a teacher who favored boys. She constantly picked on me and any other girl in the class. She would hold us back after class. She would call us up to her desk. The boys never got held back or called up to her desk. As a sixth grader, this is hard. It makes a student feel powerless. I didn’t want to be held after class for no reason, but there was nothing I could do or change to change the way she felt about me. This needs to be fixed. This is not a practice that should become normalized, and, sadly, it has. Some teachers also pick favorites based on race. They make generalizations about someone based on their skin color. This is not okay. This is, once again, a practice that shouldn’t be normalized, but it is. The way that teachers separate and favor different genders, some also do with race.
Teachers have too much power over students to display this type of favoritism. Showing favoritism based on gender or race makes a student feel helpless. It makes a student dread going to class that day. School is hard enough as is, and it should not have this added hardship. Teachers are meant to lead by example, and this type of favoritism shows a student how not to be. Conway High School has many amazing teachers that aren’t like this, but Conway High School also has too many teachers that are like this. If teachers could eliminate their bias, and see people before differences, Conway would be a better place.