Teaching a Boy to Ride a Bike: Equity in the Classroom

Lukas Tjepkema

I’m going to start off this blog by sharing a little story about myself and my youth. I was in grade 2 and when the winter had finally laid rest and spring was upon us our school was talking about having a biking day where between recess and lunch we’d ride around on the farm streets in our rural Alberta town. There was only one problem, I’d never actually learned how to ride a bike yet. I was a bit of a late bloomer in that sense. I remember thinking ‘when is the teacher going to announce what the students who can’t bike are doing while the bikers biked’, but I soon found out I was the only one who didn’t know. I remember feeling embarrassed about it and skipping out on the day because I didn’t want to have anyone know I didn’t know how to bike. The day I skipped out, my older brother stayed behind with me. When I told him I didn’t know how to ride a bike we spent the whole day getting on and off the bike and learning how to and by the end of the day; I was flying on the two-wheeler. I tell this story because I think it helps illustrate something. The importance of knowing the background of a student and checking in with them.

As part of my research in my bachelor of education I was asked to come up with an inquiry question about anything related to running a classroom and I had, what I believed to be, a simple question. “How do I, as an educator, create a culture of equity in a diverse classroom?”. This turned out to be a loaded question. It is loaded for a couple of reasons. First, upon reflection I limited myself by saying ‘diverse’ classroom because as I started researching I found that even the most ‘normal’ classroom has diverse needs and or backgrounds. So an educator should be planning for diversity no matter what. Second, I found out that instead of depending on the student to tell you about themselves, create a space where they feel comfortable sharing with a teacher. For example, if my teacher had asked everyone in the classroom if they knew how to ride a bike, he would have found out that not everyone knew how. Once he had that information he could have planned for an at school activity for students who did not know how to ride a bike or even for those who didn’t want to participate. Obviously, there are better examples of diversity other than knowing how to ride a bike, but when I think back to that moment I remember feeling so small and different than my peers. I can only imagine what it would feel like for a student whose diverse needs are a daily struggle.

I really hope that as I go into my educational career that I create safe spaces for students and always make sure to check in with them because I think in order to be an equitable classroom you must consider your students and their needs. Otherwise you’ll get kids trying to ride a bike when they don’t know how