At St. Anthony, where all of my children were African American, being a culturally relevant teacher seemed easier and more natural. In September of my first year of teaching, the energetic sixty-two year old Sister Anna gave me a tape and people cards of the "Black ABC's." Age 22 and naive, I asked, "Should I do this for Black History Month?" Sister put her hand to her heart as if she might drop dead right there and said, "No! You do this every day. Every month is Black History Month here!"

From then on I tried to teach subjects from an African frame of reference. Art, music, literature, and social studies easily and often connected naturally to African American culture. Our Catholic church services featured bongo drums, African dress, and traditional Black spirituals. In contrast to the Yankee forty-five minute "quickie mass," St. Anthony's mass lasted two hours because of all the singing.

At Clairemont, I made the mistake of no longer thinking this way about teaching. Only six of my 28 that first year, and four out of 30 the next year were African American. Because most of my African American children were poor and not doing well in school, I feared that acknowledging that the children had differences racially would somehow promote stereotypes. I somehow thought that if I did not say anything, then maybe the students would not notice. I made the same mistake that Vivian Gussin Paley, author of White Teacher, initially made in trying to treat all children equally by being colorblind.