Kris Bailey Story - Dissolving Stereotypes

Kris Bailey: I was one of those kids that uh, not to toot my own horn, but I was kind of a popular kid you know. I had lots of friends, always had like a little trail of kids that were always following me around. It was always a fun childhood, always running around all over the city. Sometimes you could do that kind of stuff where you just run around the city without having to be worried about getting picked up in a car or something like that. When I was raised with my grandparents they were old you know. So when I would come home from school things like that they weren't maybe not because they weren't interested in my education but maybe they were at an age where they weren't really, they couldn't be interested you know. They had health issues they had to take care of. I had two cousins that lived with me too so when I came home from school there wasn't anybody that was monitoring me you know as far as, let me check your homework, what did he learn in school things like that. I was kind of on my own and then when I came to school it was left to the teachers and they did a pretty good job of that otherwise I wouldn't be in this position right now.

So after my grandmother died I went back to live with my mom in Kansas City and Manhattan is totally different than Kansas City. It's just it's more of an urban environment. And so when I went there I was looked at as you know like a nerdy kid. They said I talked white and I was like you know, what, no way, what are you talking about. So I had to deal with that you know kids kind of messing with me a little bit about that and that was a little different. So my popularity went completely out the window. It didn't bother me to a point where it messed up my academics or anything like that, but it was definitely different.

I was in eighth grade and I didn't want to be in the regular school in Kansas City, I wanted to be somewhere that would kind of test me a little bit more pushing me, and a friend said, hey go to Sumner. I was like, I don't know what that is. He said you got to take a test, you got to take a special test to get to Sumner. So I tried the test, passed it, they accepted me, and so from ninth grade I finished and you know until I graduated I went to Sumner. We were looked at differently than other high schools in Kansas City. We did International Baccalaureate there which is a tougher academic standard than even AP. You know when you took IB at a school, you're like, man I can I can do some stuff, you know that's like college-level type stuff. So I think definitely kids were like man, we're headed and shoulders above regulars kids in Kansas City and then other kids in Kansas City and then other kids in Kansas City looked at us like snobs and stuff like that. And then we kind of you know got together. You know it brings everybody together like a sense of community okay everybody hates us in Kansas City so let's just gather together and just you know sealed ourselves from everybody else so that's kind of how it was at Sumner.

The moment it crystallized that I wanted to be a teacher was probably at the end of my senior year with Mr. Smith. You know he stayed on me and kept me on top of things about getting into college and keeping me motivated. And Mr. Smith especially really stressed just preparation you know because they said everything that we're doing here is gonna prepare you for college you know, you can't do it here you know, are you gonna be able to do it you know, at K-State. So I'll never forget like graduation when we were walking at the you know, the cap and gown ceremony and all the teachers were in the cap and gown. And we were just walking with everyone and all the teachers were lined up just had a look of approval on, like a look of like okay, you guys made it. And, and he just looked happy you know he looked like you know you did it in four years. And I was like, man, that pretty much crystallized it for me, I said yeah this is what I'm gonna go into.

The pressure I feel is pretty much put on myself because I'm here, I'm a self-driven person like there's no one from the outside really saying you have to do it, it's it's all for me. I want to succeed, I want to be the first person in my family to do this and I'm so far into it, I'm so deep into it like for me to back out of it now would be a complete failure. So that's the pressure I feel is just to be the first one. When I went to college I knew that I was the first one to go so I knew I wanted to finish I knew that I had these lofty goals to meet, not just to go to college, not just to graduate. I want to get a masters, I want to get a doctorate at some point, just to set that bar in my family history. There probably isn't any stereotypes in this day and age as far as me being a black guy going to college but as far as in education I think I'm breaking a lot of stereotypes. I mean just look at my physical appearance and say okay this guy's gonna be a teacher, you're like what, you know you might think she might be going into you know sports or something like that but when you look at me and say okay this guy wants to be a teacher. There's a lot of stereotypes but there's not a whole lot of guys that want to be a teacher from what I understand. There's not a whole lot of black guys that want to be teachers, so there's that stereotype I think that I'm breaking out that at some point you know, that doesn't become a stereotype.