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Classroom Reflection Analysis

Decent Essays

As I have learned through experience, diverse classrooms full of “windows and mirrors” are the best learning environments for me. By having different perspectives, or windows, in a classroom, it enables students to glean from various experiences. Mirrors, or similar people with similar experiences, are also important to have in a classroom setting so that students can relate to each other and feel comfortable. Over the years of my school career, I have found myself stuck seeing many windows, and not many mirrors, due to lack of diversity in the schools I have attended, but once given the opportunity to learn in a more diverse classroom, my experience improved dramatically. In Emily Style’s “Curriculum as Window and Mirror” she states, “sometimes when we hear another out, glancing through the window of their humanity, we can see our own image reflected in the glass of their window. The window becomes our mirror!” (1). This metaphor proved to be true this past summer of 2017, when I took a U.S. History course at Stone Ridge. Although the class itself was not the most enjoyable, the people in the class made it more pleasant. About one third of the class was black, which has been very rare for me in the past. When the class got to certain discussions like the “Black Church” or different civil rights movements, the black students in the class were given the opportunity to chime in and share relatable experiences. Not only were we engaged with the material, but we were also able to see “mirrors” in each others’ lives and other students were able to see “windows” in ours’. This rare occurrence helped me participate in the class, which can generally be a hard thing for me to do. Hearing my peers’ similar experiences was helpful in seeing that there are people at Stone Ridge who have had comparable experiences to mine. In addition to seeing mirrors in the class, it was also nice to see a variety of windows in the class. One day, we got into a discussion about racism and stereotyping, and in that conversation, everyone was able to share their opinions. It was interesting hearing the perspectives that were different than mine. This equal balance of windows and mirrors, not only with my classmates, but also in the

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