Through my experiences with having being around children in a school-like setting for years, it became clear to me that one of the most challenging tasks, aside from teaching the students of course, is interacting with the the children's family.
The child's family plays a big role in their life. Before and while they start schooling, those are all the people they have to learn from. To most children, at this age of nine, their family probably one of their biggest influences in their life. It really makes the child who they are turning out to be thus far in their life. The culturally competent teacher values this and respects this to the fullest.
Some challenges that the teacher, being myself in this case, might come across when teaching other people's children could be parent's concerned that the teacher isn't able to connect with their children with their style of teaching or it could be that the parents don't influence their child to strive to do well in school at all. Seeing some of the children of Mitchell Elementary and knowing their backgrounds, it has become very clear to me that most children usually fall in those two categories, and nowhere in between. The children who have their parents calling up Mrs. Kelly all the time and the children who strive to to better. It is evident that their parents push for them to be the greatest they can be. While on the other hand, the children who aren't pushed as much in their home atmosphere are the ones that sadden me the most. Those children usually don't have the proper guidance or are told that school matters. Most are just told school is something they have to get through, and that's what they do. I've noticed over the weeks that whenever I'm there it is the same students who do the homework and have a good track record, and it is the same students that don't do their homework and constantly get notes home. But the children who get notes home, usually don't change their ways after that. For the most part, they still continue to have their name get put in the orange and red zone and bring in incomplete homework. And what I've noticed is somewhat seems that the teachers are slowly starting to give up on them. I've seen many times Mrs.Kelly and the special education teachers reprimand the children, but do not try to help them change.
Lisa Delpit discusses situations like this in her article "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children". In this article, Lisa discusses the trials and tribulations of trying to educate children other than your own and the challenges that minority parents face when it comes to educating their child. She states that "to provide schooling for everyone else's children that reflect liberal, middle class values and aspirations is to ensure the maintenance of the status quo, to ensure power, the culture of power, remains in the hands of those who already have it." This just re-enforces that, to this theorist, the White man assumes the role of those whom already possess the traits necessary to provide schooling. This could be concerning because parents of minority children "want to ensure the school provides them with discourse patterns, interactional styles, and spoken and written language codes that will allow them success in the larger society." This means that Delpit is saying minority parents want the same schooling for their children as white people's children get, if not more. Because their children might not speak English, the children might have to work twice as hard just to achieve to achieve their goal because of a language barrier.
Through learning this, one of the things that I might do in regards to the parents concerns, might be to send home teacher evaluations (for myself) to parents and students perhaps once or twice a month. Then if a parent does have a problem, we could schedule a conference to discuss that. I feel like this could be effective because not only would it help the students and parents to get their voices heard, but it would also help me to become a better teacher.
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I had some of the same experience with the children in my classrooms. It was evident that there were some who just wanted attention and recognition more than others - most likely because they do not get it enough at home. These children were the same ones who were constantly in trouble - or like you said in the red zone - in my school there card could be changed from yellow to orange and red being the worst. I agree with what you said about the parents who do not encourage their kids to do well in school. I had one kid in my first grade class who would go from constantly wanting attention and approval to mis-behaving and acting out if he didn't receive a positive comment.I also liked your idea of having an evaluation sent home every couple of weeks and meeting with the parents to address their concerns. Sounds like you learned a lot from this experience! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea,
ReplyDeleteRight, Delpit argues that minority parents want something more for their children than do the parents of middle-class, white children. That is where the passage that you quoted comes in. The balance is delicate--the culturally competent teacher validates a child's native culture while investing each child with the rules and codes of standard English.
Keep thinking on these things,
Dr. August