SECTION E: TEACHING STORIES 3
Reflections on Race, Democracy, and Education:
What Kind of Teacher Do You Want to Be?
By S. Maxwell Hines
S. Maxwell Hines or “Max” is one of the assisting editors of this book and a good friend. She is the
science education coordinator in the Hofstra University School of Education and Allied Human
Services. As a young African American girl, she was one of those students who was alternately ig-
nored by some teachers and promoted by others as a model Black student. In graduate school,
she stopped using her first name because she felt her work as a scientist was devalued because
she was a woman. An important question to consider as you read her story is whether her experi-
ence should be considered an exception or as a suggestion of possibility.—Alan Singer
Before I discuss my ideas about teaching, let me first tell you a bit about myself. I am an Afri-
can American woman, a teacher educator in a university near New York City, a scientist, a
wife, and a mother of twin boys. My husband is a junior high school math teacher.
Being African American has been significant in everything that I have done my entire life.
If African Americans do not take charge of our lives and take care of each other, I fear we will
slide into a situation that will be untenable for us. We have to be academically prepared, and
not just concentrate on areas society pushes us into like sports and music. I decided to focus
on science because nobody thought I could do it. They said, “Why science honey? It’s so
hard.” or “Why don’t you try nursing? That’s a better idea.” Of course, they left out the rest
of what they were thinking: “for a Black woman.” But I said to myself, “I have the same
amount of brains that anyone else has, and if they can be scientists, so can I.” I believe that
people have to resist stereotypes and do things that they are not expected to do.
My childhood experiences played an important role in who I am as a person and as a
teacher. I was their only child, so my parents gave me a girl’s first name and a boy’s middle
name. I started calling myself S. Maxwell Hines when I was a young woman and I was study-
ing immunology. I found that it was much easier to get recognition and to get items pub-
lished if my name did not sound female. Using my first initial and my male middle name sim-
ply worked better. Today, my friends and family call me “Max.”
I was born in Brooklyn in the early 1960s and I grew up in Queens, another borough of
New York City. My father, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, was a jack of all trades, but
mostly he made a living as a presser in a cleaning plant. My mother was a teacher, a guid-
ance counselor, and a school librarian. I guess I got the idea of becoming a teacher from her.
My father, who was adopted, had had a very hard time growing up. He was not educated, but
he was a very well-read and articulate man.
My mother was a small-town girl from a rural part of North Carolina. Wherever she went
during her life, she was an activist. She was involved in the civil rights movement before she
came north, she remained involved in New York City, and she is an activist now back in
North Carolina. Both of my parents valued character, education, family, and community.
These were much more important than color or credentials.
When I started school we lived in St. Albans, Queens, a middle-class Black community
with a lot of municipal employees, teachers, and other professionals. I attended the local
public school until one of the teachers told my mother that I was outpacing the other stu-
dents. She recommended that I enter a special program in another district that would pro-
vide me with more of a challenge and greater opportunity. My mother decided to move me
RELATIONSHIPS 115