VIDEO
HIGHLIGHT
Log InSign up
Dena Simmons: How students of color confront impostor syndrome | TED
SummaryTranscriptChat

Dena Simmons: How students of color confront impostor syndrome | TED

My Journey from the Bronx to Academia

Early Life in the Bronx

  • The speaker describes their upbringing in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, New York, with two sisters and an immigrant mother. The neighborhood was lively but also dangerous due to drug-related activities.
  • Gunshots were a common sound at night, leading to constant worry about safety for both the speaker and their mother. This anxiety influenced their early life experiences.

Transition to Boarding School

  • Driven by concern for her children's safety, the speaker's mother took them to Connecticut for boarding school, highlighting a mother's determination. At boarding school, they experienced newfound freedom and safety.
  • Despite this positive change, the speaker quickly felt out of place due to differences in speech and cultural background, facing public corrections from teachers on how to pronounce words correctly.

Experiences of Alienation

  • A specific incident involved a teacher publicly correcting the speaker's pronunciation of "asking," which led to embarrassment among peers. This exemplifies feelings of not belonging and emotional damage caused by forced conformity.
  • Other moments of alienation included classmates' reactions to personal grooming habits that were culturally significant, reinforcing feelings of being different or unacceptable.

Academic Achievements and Imposter Syndrome

  • The speaker reflects on their academic journey: attending prestigious institutions like Yale after earning scholarships and degrees while grappling with imposter syndrome—feeling either like a token or exceptionally talented yet disconnected from their roots.
  • They express concerns about having had to leave behind aspects of their identity as a Black girl from the Bronx in pursuit of education and success.

Education Reform Concerns

  • Research indicates that students of color face disproportionate disciplinary actions compared to white students; they are suspended or expelled at three times higher rates for similar infractions. This systemic issue highlights inequities within educational environments.
  • A study revealed that only three percent of children's books feature African-American characters, reflecting broader issues regarding representation in curricula that affect students' self-perception and identity formation.

Creating Inclusive Classrooms

  • The speaker emphasizes the importance of creating emotionally safe classrooms where all students can thrive academically without sacrificing their identities; they successfully implemented this approach when teaching back in the Bronx.
Channel: TED
Video description

As a black woman from a tough part of the Bronx who grew up to attain all the markers of academic prestige, Dena Simmons knows that for students of color, success in school sometimes comes at the cost of living authentically. Now an educator herself, Simmons discusses how we might create a classroom that makes all students feel proud of who they are. "Every child deserves an education that guarantees the safety to learn in the comfort of one's own skin," she says. Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com