Planning Under Pressure

Due to an unexpected snow day, I only had one class period to teach about the experiences of enslaved people in a unit on the Haitian Revolution. I was already nervous about getting this unit just right, particularly because I was the only White person (and one of the only non-Black people) in the class. The thought of simplifying the central question and cutting the number of documents I included made me uncomfortable. I created a whole packet of documents, but I had to narrow it to three short readings so that students would have enough time to think about and discuss the question. Ultimately the central question I settled on was “What was life like for enslaved people in Haiti?” but I told students they could take the discussion in any direction they’d like. I wanted the discussion to be student-centered. 

I entered the discussion a bit on-edge because I was not confident in my planning decisions. Was the central question too simple? Should I have chosen other documents?  Then, my anxiety heightened as students decided to focus the conversation on document 3: a document about enslaved people singing, dancing, and enjoying time together in church on a day off. They were debating whether this document belonged in the packet at all. One group of students believed that the document belonged because it humanized enslaved people; however, another group of students believed it did not belong because the experience of slavery was dominated by negative experiences. My heart started to pound when Teresa, an African American student, said: “When you say that [enslaved people] had good stuff, it’s like gaslighting. They gaslighting the fact that, alright, you had horrible work 6 days out of the week, but off that one day.” The word “gaslight” made me feel like students were questioning my planning decision. Worse, I worried that the student-centered nature of the discussion would lead them to question me and no longer see me as the anti-racist, kind, and supportive teacher I aspired to be.