Who is Aisha Gilchrist?
Let's go back to when I was a little girl; Aisha loved making new friends and doing the right thing. Aisha is a girl who grew up to find her place, and right now, as a woman, I found my place, and that's to help people. I love to help families and kids in general. I love to see kids grow up, and I've been teaching now for thirteen years. There's a good feeling to see kids that I've taught and see them now where they are at. I'm a person who has really grown over the years and into a space of helping kids find their place, helping them be who they want to be, and providing a space for them to be able to try anything they want to try.
As an educator, how do you apply morals and values in your leadership role?
That's something I do across the board. I apply it to my colleagues, the rules I have in school, and with my students. In my school, I lead over certain groups. I'm over my grade level, and what that means is I kind of help them wherever the need is; discussions about when we're in school what are the things that we can do to help families, and things we can do to help students. Just making sure we are doing the right thing. Sometimes we are in situations where we want to say this or do that, but we have to remember that it is not our child, and these parents are sending to school their best. So you have to always think of that when you are in a leadership position. With my students, we always go back to doing the right things. When we're in class, we always talk about being respectful. We talk about carrying yourself the way your parents would want to see you, and the way you would want people to look up to you, and being a leader. So I really push leadership, and I call them models, and I call them leaders.
Do you believe the education curriculum adequately prepares our youth with knowledge surrounding racism and division since these are realistic scenarios minority children may encounter?
No. I do not feel like that at all. When I first started teaching, we had a curriculum, but we didn't necessarily have to follow it. It was something given to you so you had some type of understanding of what you should teach. There's nowhere in there where you were supposed to talk about that, or if it were brought up, you would get some type of look from other co-workers, principals, or even parents. Some parents do not want you to talk about certain things in the classroom, and I feel like education can shield that as well. For example, we have certain things, like Christopher Columbus, I don't celebrate nor talk about it. We have Black History Month, and we try to have something about that, or we will have stuff that talks about the Indigenous people. When we have Thanksgiving, we don't want to only focus on one side of the story. So, I would say no, the curriculum shields it, and they don't want to talk about it. If you look at the curriculum, it's not even in there.
We have a new curriculum in Onslow County called CKLA, and it's basically a reading program. This program has tried to hit on some of the topics, but Onslow County took a lot of the stuff away. So the curriculum came from the company, but Onslow County said, hey, you're going to skip these units because these areas discuss specific topics about race and religion that we arent going to talk about. So I think school is a lot about politics and keeping parents happy, and it's about not touching nor talking about certain things. It just seems like not a topic to talk about in school. I also think with me teaching 1st grade; it might be looked at differently. Maybe in a high school setting, it's a lit bit different. I do know when they're 6, 7, 8 years old; you don't want to talk a lot about that. However, they still need to understand this is how the world used to be a long time ago. We still have a lot of things we are working towards, and things could get better if these are the things we put into place. I definitely talk about it with my kids, but it's the bare minimum type of conversation because there are 6, 7, 8-year-olds. They just need to know that we couldn't sit in this classroom together at one point. We have to have talk and discuss, and be the people to speak up so these things can change.
Working alongside other educators, you witnessed different approaches to teaching. Was there a time where you witnessed, in your opinion, the wrong way of leading others? If so, how would you have changed it?
I truly feel like I've been surrounded by teachers who have not lead in a way you wouldn't want to lead. At the end of the day, if you become a teacher, you may not know what you're getting yourself into when it comes to the pay, kids, and parents. For the most part, I think all teachers have some type of morals in their classroom. I am in a position where I haven't witnessed anything, although I know there are times when it happens—I've seen it on social media or on the news. For me personally, I have not seen it happen before or around me; praise God.
What are your thoughts on teacher pay, lack of educational materials, and the specific reading materials banned from school libraries?
I know there are some banned, like Dr. Suess's books. It took me into my 7th year of teaching before I realized before he was an author; he was a cartoonist. He would draw certain things for people and draw what was happening at that time, where the world was at that moment. With him not being alive, we won't know where his mindset is now. It took me a while to even know that happened, and it's almost like when you don't know, you cant do better. I know some schools also banned a book called The Giving Tree; it's a popular book. People have different perspectives and experiences on various topics. I don't think we entirely canceled Dr. Suess, because yea, he's done some things, but he's done other positive stuff as well.
As far as to pay, North Carolina does not handle their funds properly. Teachers are at the bottom of the totem pole. We just got a raise, and it's not that much. I'm in my thirteenth year of teaching, and if I move to Texas, first-year teachers make more than me. I currently have a Master's Degree now, and I don't even get paid for it. Unfortunately, North Carolina doesn't want to pay you for higher education. They stopped that in 2013. Let's go back to the school supply list. Teachers are putting things on the school supply list because they don't get it in school. Teachers are putting all these things on the school supply list because the school isn't helping us with the kids who aren't able to get everything on the school supply list. You have families who want to provide everything on the list; they just can't afford it.
When we went through Covid, it was very sad to know that the only thing I had in my class to keep my kids safe was a hand sanitizer attached to the wall and some Clorox. In our school, Ms. Hoffman does her best to do whatever she can do to help us. She was providing dividers for us. They went out and bought dividers for us so we wouldn't have to come out of our own pockets. She also provided masks, and I'm pretty sure she paid for a lot of that stuff too. The county provided a small portion of the mask, but it was up to the school to provide outside of that supply. I don't think it's solely Onslow County; I think it has a lot to do with the politics, money, and budget overall. Schools have to do what they have to do. If you have to choose between paying for the curriculum over the supplies, then there going to choose the curriculum. Teachers' salaries are included within that budget as well. I think it's a mixture of many things that can cause the problem, and not solely one area. Luckily, I'm at a school where I can truly say if I need something, or if she sees there is a need, she will allow us to write grants to support us and make sure we have those things in our school.
Is the Department of Education in need of new leadership?
I think if they hired more teachers who have been in the classroom in these roles, they would be fine. I feel they want to have the best interest of students, but maybe they aren't going about it the right way since they don't have the right people there to help guide them. I don't know what it is, but I know money plays a role. I believe it was three years ago, teachers went down to the Capitol, myself included. At that point, we were asking for more money and more things for our schools. We did get raises and made some changes. Everything in education begins from the top-up. It has unfortunately gotten too political, and there's a bigger issue than what we see.
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