Are Black Male Educators spending too much time with Students?

A recent survey data released by DonorsChoose stated that…?

• “Black male teachers spend more time mentoring and counseling students than teachers of any other demographic. The same trend emerged regarding tutoring students outside of class.”
• “Black male teachers have more students socializing in their classrooms. These teachers report an average of 10 students spending time in the classroom outside class every week.”

This is great news, because research also supports that Black teachers, based on their familiarity with the cultural needs of Black students, are more likely to create a space for positive academic achievement to occur.??

Simply put, Black teachers spending more time in schools (both formal and informal) with Black students may lead to great academic achievement.??

AWESOME! This is a WIN WIN!

But is it? Could there be a downside??

Recently, I began to wonder…

• What did I miss out on, in terms of my own personal growth and professional development, spending so much of my non-teaching time with mentoring/coaching students or just letting them hang out in my classroom??
• Did the investment of “extra” time in my students, interrupt my time to practice self-care??
• Did I miss opportunities to build healthy relationships with my colleagues??
• Did my supervisors pass me over for leadership opportunities, because they knew the positive impact I was having with students and didn’t want to disturb it???

I talk about this and more in a recent episode of my podcast. Take a listen.?

https://anchor.fm/ayodele-harrison/episodes/Are-Black-Male-Educators-spending-too-much-time-with-Students-e1ih4ha