PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Although his seventh-grade English teacher was “very scary and domineering,” Jahlil Rivera was inspired by her to become an educator himself.
“The lovely Ms. Bradley…kind of woke me up,” he said. “It’s probably the craziest and hardest year of my life. I didn’t like Ms. Bradley for half the year.”
Aliya Catanch-Bradley says she wasn’t too impressed with Rivera either.
“When I met Jahlil in the seventh grade, he was just very lazy, academically. And also, very OK with it,” said Bradley, who taught Rivera at Hill-Freedman Middle School in 2008. “His test scores were not really good, and it didn’t seem like he cared about it.”
Still, Bradley saw promise in Rivera.
“I was relentless with seeing a spark in this young Black male, that we were going to use all the kindling, all the logs, all the starter logs," she said. "We’re going to set fire to what was already there."
And by his eighth grade year, they we were two peas in a pod.
“I couldn’t get away from her,” Rivera said, “and I realized that I had learned so much.”
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Their example serves as a model to develop more Black teachers in the city. Less than a quarter of Philadelphia public school teachers are Black. Statewide, studies show only 6% identify as teachers of color, according to Research for Action.
“I’m probably the first Black male that they’ve had as a core teacher,” said Rivera, a 2019 graduate of West Chester University who is now an English language arts teacher for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Overbrook Educational Center.
Bradley said those statistics are dismal, especially in terms of what that means for children in urban areas like Philadelphia.
“We really need a diversified workforce, which Jahlil is part of — which I am part of,” she said. “We need more educators that look like the children to which they serve.”
Black male teachers, Bradley added, need to be respected as educators, not just as authority figures. “You have to create an environment that is healthy enough that they don’t feel like unicorns; that they also don’t feel like disciplinarians. That they are respected as a colleague that’s not there just to work with all the tough kids.”
That form of mutual respect is also shared between Bradley and Rivera. He still seeks classroom advice from her.
“The continuum and evolution of a relationship from a simple teacher-student to lifelong mentorship is … a privilege,” said Bradley, who is now the principal at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School.
Rivera knows what a difference Bradley made in his life. He hopes to pay it forward with his students.
“If you ultimately want to become a teacher, I let my students know, I am the biggest resource for you,” he said.
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