I was also fortunate this semester to engage in mentoring a young African-American student named James. Although this assignment was geared toward working with a student from a different culture in order to examine the differences in our lives as well as our values, I think that it was very fortunate for not only my experience but also for the student's experience that we shared so many of the same hurdles growing up. The death of a sibling as well as the experience at multiple schools a

I have never been witness to any racial mistreatment to students throughout my own experiences but I have, however, been witness to the mistreatment to students based on the gender. When reading Failing At Fairness I had many memories of high school when both males and females were discriminated against because of their genders. The book that we read by Myra and David Sadker was based more around the ways that girls were mistreated in the schools but there was one chapter that did deal with the mistreatment of the boys. I can remember several instances during my sophomore year in high school when the boys would be picked on by the teacher. Josh Taylor was a boy in my tenth grade English class and we were very good friends. In fact, we dated at one point and one day we walked into class together about five minutes late and our teacher, Mrs. Lightfoot, looked at me as I made my way to my seat and then fixed her eyes on Josh who was not a trouble maker at all. As he made his way to the last open desk in the classroom Mrs. Lightfoot asked him why he was late. Of course Josh could not think of any good reason why he was late so he stated that we were caught up in a conversation with our friends in the hallway. Our teacher did not like that excuse very much so she proceeded to tell him to stay after class. Throughout the class, Josh was the first to be called on for any question and he only knew the answer to one of them. Mrs. Lightfoot's intentions were not to challenge him intellectually but to make him look like a fool in the classroom in front of his peers. So, Josh stayed after class like he was told and Mrs. Lightfoot made him stay there until the next class bell rang and then he was allowed to go. The thing that got to me was not that he was picking on Josh, even though that did get to me. It was odd to me that she did not say a word to me about being late. I can honestly say that my best friend Erin always walked into lass with me late and a word was never spoken to us about being late. Mrs. Lightfoot always smiled and treated us like we were there early with our homework out ready to go over it. That was hardly the case and I could never understand why she was so harsh on the boys et so lenient with the girls.

James telling me his story took such guts so I knew I needed him to trust that I had experienced something quite similar in my life so I told him about the death of my sister, not in elaborate detail of course. He looked shocked and continued by saying that he had never met anyone who had gone through the same experience. I knew that I would need to talk to him about how to deal with the emotions he would be feeling or else he would go through what I went through, living twelve years full of days with smiles and nights in bed with eyes full of tears. James didn't need to go through that and I could be the one to help him smile about his brother's memory instead of feeling regret and pain. So, every session we would talk about all these wonderful stories about his brother and what he did that was so great and then I would tell an awesome story about my sister and what she would do that was so great. Sometimes we cried and sometimes we laughed but we always left the sessions feeling better about our siblings. I know that this little boy was helping me deal with issues I had never dealt with before and ignored so much that it began to eat at me every day for over a decade. James was learning how to cherish the time spent with his brother and hold his memories close to him instead of trying his hardest not to think about them. I felt myself getting closer to this child and I knew that he understood me. It is one thing to listen to someone try and tell you how they think you should deal with your problems but it is quite another to see the loss in someone else's eyes and have them express to you the best way to deal with it. So, from James I learned more than I expected. He made me realiz

Some common words found in the essay are:
Middle School, Failing Fairness, Mother's Day, , Josh Taylor, B's C's, Lightfoot Maybe, David Sadker, African-Americans Unfortunately, skin color, black boy, answers past, racial issues, named james, african-american girls, white children, educational system, semester ald class, middle school, effects life, thirty minute sessions, boy named james, found answers past, simply skin color,
Approximate Word count = 6542
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page double spaced)