This experience in a way has opened my eyes to the many misfortunes that high school students face in their lives especially when it comes to their home lives. As a upcoming teacher I realize how important it is to know that not all students come from the same backgrounds, and have the same priveleges. Many of them have disadvantages that were handed to them at birth regarding their parents, opportunities and quality of living. These are things that I knew existed and should be taken into account, but it had been so long since I witnessed these situations. I have seen many teachers in my life not take these things into consideration and treat all students as if they are all the same. Teachers must be open-minded, and empathetic to all situations, and I truly believe that this is how I will be. An example of this would be a student that I recently worked with was assigned to create a map of the functions in his life and how they describe him in definition. He used words such as mistake, bastard and pervert. He expressed in class that his mother told him he was a mistake. It is very obvious that this student carries around so much pain, that I don't even know how he manages to raise himself above it. My classroom teacher is very dedicated to making sure that he stays positive, and reaches for his goals. Making sure that he knows that he can achieve what he sets his mind to regardless of the disadvantages that he has been handed. This student recently received a full ride to his college of choice, which I am sure will make a huge poositive difference in his life. I would like to thing that I would also be this type of teacher that would assist a student to this level of achievement.
All of the lessons plans in my classroom have been built around personal identity and culture, which I see as an excellent way to involve and respect where each student comes from. It shows that the teacher is open minded and culturally competent regarding diversity. An example of this would be an assignment where the students were to create power posters that represented an issue that they felt strongly about. This issue could pertain to their gender, race, ethnicity, culture, or any other portion of their identity without limitations.
I have found that I could teach in any environment, to any group of students and maintain the same great intentions to help the students succeed, and express their identity and beliefs. I could not work in a school setting that did not encourage these ideals, nor could I tolerate to see a teacher deter a student from invilving these things in their education. I would definitely give the same opportunites to all students so that they can feel accomplished regardless of any assumed disadvantge or disabiility. I have learned a great deal from watching my classroom teacher in action, and hope to mirror many of her tachniques and qualities in my own classroom someday.
Great job! I hope you find this school setting and teachers that are like minded although you may also have to resort to much diplomacy with administration and peer teachers when witnessing stuff you don't like or agree with...
ReplyDeleteBarry,
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you put so much work into your tutoring, and it really shows when you talk about your experiences. I agree that some teachers forget that children come into school with personal histories that affect their learning. Delpit argues that children learn specific codes at home, but depending on the culture of the child, a code may be different per home. Some children are primed, knowing their alphabet and numbers. While other children who do not fall into the culture of power learn survival skills at home. Teaches cannot act like all of their students have the same background, "Schools must provide these children the content that orher families from different cultural orientation provide at home," (Delpit 30).
I also agree that I could never teach in a place that doesn't encourage children to succeed, and ask them to exist by a certain code. I hope that I am never left in a postition where I am stuck teaching something I don't believe in, while not saying anything in fear of losing my job.
Lastly, I just want to comment on your story about the student who thought really negatively about himself due to his family. Teachers should never forget that each child has a background, and I say this because I had a situation similar to yours. There is a boy in my 4th grade classroom who seems really happy, he participates and is talkative, the teacher and I thought he was a happy, "normal" kid. When I walked by his paper the other day, I noticed that he had wrote that he hated himself on the top of his paper. I didn't feel that I had the power or expertise to make a direct comment to him about what he written. So I mentioned it to the teacher, and she was completely taken by surprise. When this boy entered her classroom, she judged him by his superficial happy character, while never learning his personal history. I'm glad that I mentioned it to the teacher because I don't know the child well enough to determine if this could turn into a dangerous situation. When you see something like this happen, it brings sadness because we like to forget about all the horrible things in life when it comes to education. But unfortunately, as teachers this is something that we will have to deal with.
Hope your next visit is great!
-Jen