My experience of volunteering through the VIPS program has been both challenging and rewarding. Having recently moved to Rhode Island, I was unsure of what to expect from Armstrong Elementary as I am unfamiliar with the Providence school systems.

I consider myself very fortunate to have attended twelve years of school in an education system that prided itself on academics. In addition, both my grade school and high school were in clean buildings with many resources readily available, which is something I most likely took for granted. My teachers, all white middle class adults, underwent much schooling to be considered qualified for their positions. I now realize that my fortunate schooling experience is not one that everyone has had. Reading Jonathan Kozol’s article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal,” opened my eyes to the poor conditions that many underprivileged children face on a daily basis. As Alliyah, a young girl from the Bronx, asks Kozol, “We do not have the things you have…You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that…Is there a way to fix this problem?” After attending Kozol’s lecture, I decided that I too want to act as an advocate for the equal treatment of children in our school system.

At Armstrong Elementary, the small group of kindergarten children I tutored consisted of three girls: two Caucasian and one Hispanic. During one session, we played an activity where two people were the captains and the rest of the group was the followers. Jenna*, one of the Caucasian girls, suggested aloud that she and Liz* should be the captains, and Jasmin* should be a follower. When I asked her why she thought that, she replied that she and Liz both had white skin and Jasmin had darker skin, which made her different. Even in a diverse school such as this one, a form of racism was present, manifested in someone as young as six years old. After I lifted my jaw from the table, I took this opportunity to impress upon her my belief that every person should be treated the same, no matter if their skin color is dark or light. She smiled and shook her head ok, and we all continued with the game. Liz and Jasmin were the leaders that day, and though Jasmin’s game piece won, I couldn’t help but wonder how she and so many other minority students feel as targets of racial discrimination.

So this is my challenge to myself. When I become a teacher, I will treat every student with the same respect as the one sitting next to him or her. I will strive to teach students the importance of equality, and as Kozol urges, be a warrior for justice.

* names have been changed