#BlackTeachersMatter w/ Deshawn
Name: DeShawn Jackson
Age: 52
Location: Seattle, Washington USA
Where and what do you teach?
John Muir Elementary, Math and Language Arts, Social studies
How long have you been a teacher?
8 years
What made you decide to become a teacher?
Working with youth have always been my calling I've coached youth basketball and mentored young men for years. Getting laid off from corporate America was a blessing. They say when Jah closes a door he opens another. It gave me an opportunity to go back to school and to be offered a job at the school my daughter attended. I've been blessed with the opportunity to do what I love and to be with my daughter everyday for 5 years.
Name a moment where you helped a student get through a hard situation?
We have many students at are school that are in constant turmoil in their home environment. I have students that are going through adult situations and they don't have a voice to advocate for themselves and by building relationship with them and their families I've been able to help them and their families navigate through crisis.
How important are Black males in education?
It's extremely important..I think it's very difficult to be successful if you don't have someone that looks like you that's attainable, someone who shares your culture, someone that actually understands you and has been through some of the things you're going through and knows the things your going to go through. A role model.
If you could create your own subject at your school what would it be and why?
African American Knowledge of Self and How to Survive in a System that was never intended for us to survive... How can kids feel good about themselves if all they know is that we were slaves..We had a great leader Martin Luther King and we contributed ways to use a peanut. Our children need more than reading, writing and arithmetic to survive in a system that was set up for us to fail. They wonder why there is a education gap..well one reason is because we started hundred of years behind everyone else.
What is your ultimate goal as a teacher?
To feel like I've made a positive impact in everyone of my students lives.
If you could give school age you any advice, what would it be?
To not take anything for granted and to find something I'm passionate about and work on being the best I can be at it.
