Neutrality in teaching

As chapter 20 discussed, "rules are spoken about as inherently neutral, impartially exercised, and impervious to individual feelings and personal responses." (p. 313) I feel that school is in general talked about as a neutral thing. People often argue that everyone in American has an opportunity, that all children are given the right of education, but is that reality?

In public schools students are consciously or not divided into categories by their teachers, administrators, fellow peers, etc. To focus more on teachers as that is what we are all striving to be at this point, we can try to be as neutral as possible but it really can't be achieved. Every single person has had different life experiences that shape our thoughts and views. We were once cut off by a white woman driving while on her cell phone and inherently see a white mom on her cell phone drop her child off and think of her in a certain way. Maybe we were robbed by a young black male and that student looks kind of like him. It is impossible to be neutral! The main thing a teacher can do is strive to treat each student as an individual. As humans our brains generalize and categorize to save us time and energy but teachers need to consciously reverse this process. For example all football players cannot be categorized of as obnoxious and lazy in academics. It wont be easy, but it is something (among everything else we've talked about in this class) to keep in mind.