Black educators series: Chatmon’s chipmunks
In honor of Black History Month, BluePrints is featuring Black educators in Clarke County School District in this series of brief stories.
Walking into India Chatmon’s classroom, you cannot help but notice Chatmon’s enthusiasm and joyful energy. All of her students participate actively, and she never fails to bring a smile to their faces. Her students proudly call themselves her “Chipmunks.”
Chatmon, who is currently instructing fifth grade at Barnett Shoals Elementary, has been teaching for thirteen years. She hopes to go back to school to get a doctorate at the University of Georgia. Chatmon says she became a teacher because she wanted to help students in need of caring, loving and supportive teachers.
“I went into the education field, and I said I’m only going to work in schools that are low income, and high need. Because I want to work where people don’t want to go, and I want to give that love. And for the first in six years of my teaching profession, that’s where I was,” Chatmon said.
Her own experiences growing up contribute to her valuing the importance of having diverse teachers so that all students can feel supported and be represented within their community. Chatmon says that she can relate to students who have divorced parents, struggles at home or low income households. She says having a teacher with similar experiences makes students feel heard and gives them hope that they too can overcome their challenges.
“Having scholars see me as an African American educator and see that I have a master’s degree gives them hope for what they can do. My parents were military people. We struggled financially. I was a child who had an attitude problem because you didn’t know my family background, and I had a lot of personal issues with my real mother,” Chatmon said.
Through books and providing students the space to talk, Chatmon hopes all students can feel represented. At Barnett Shoals Elementary the hallways are lined with Black activists who have made history during the civil rights movements: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman. Chatmon hopes that Black History Month will not only take place during February but consistently throughout K-12 education.
“Black history isn’t a month. Hispanic history isn’t a couple of days in a week. Women’s Suffrage isn’t a moment to remember: it is forever. Putting Black history into a box and saying ‘okay so in this month we’re going to talk about all of the African Americans who have changed our world,’ you’re saying that there’s no value in African Americans besides the month of February,” Chatmon said. “That is the misconception. That is hurting our generations of children.”
