From this day forward let's all commit to calling every person a racist who uses race to explain teacher failure, every time, everywhere.
Using race, family & poverty as excuses for your limitations is, among other things, racist. If you can't get results get a new job.
I'm tired of teachers who deflect responsibility & make themselves victims. If you can't get results it's not parents' fault it's yours.
The above are all quotes from a well-known African American educator who is routinely featured on a national news program. These were recent tweets.
I'm submitting them to my readers without comment. Curious as to what others think.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Hard to get results when the second limitation is in place. What is that hierarchy that I've forgotten? That it isn't possible to learn effectively when you're hungry, abused or have a multitude of other major issues in your life? (like poverty or family issues) I don't deflect full responsibility but I REFUSE to take 100% either unless I have a lot more control of what's going on in that child's life.
My thought? Bullshit.
Doctors are not solely responsible for a patient's health. If a patient continue to smoke, it is NOT the doctor's fault if that patient gets cancer. When will parents take some responsibility for parenting their children??
At a certain point it also becomes the student's responsibility to make better choices, too. I grew up in a trailer park and my mom was very unstable financially I also went to urban school, a school where the education was "inferior". (In some respects I did feel it was, in the respect of preparing me for college) I still went to a state university and finished in 4 years.
My husband is black and comes from a family that values education and he is now an engineer. It's all about whether you value education. I do believe that a teacher can influence students, however the STRONGEST influence a child will have are the parents. I am sick of teachers being blamed for EVERYTHING.
mmm... interesting! somehow reminded me of the book the wave...
Ridiculous. That is my humble opinion. I agree with the doctor/patient comparison as well.
I teach in rural Alaska where most of the students have fetal alcohol syndrome, have a relative who has committed suicide, and deal with abuse and neglect on a daily basis. I can't control those factors, and I can't stop these problems from affecting their education. I can only do my part, and I try to make a difference in their lives and education as best as I can.
I choose to interpret the quotes a little differently. Rather than taking them as yet another attack on teachers, I think the quotes can be interpreted as a wake-up call, for all of us, to institutionalized inequities that permeate our lives, including schools at every level, every socio-economic strata, and every real estate venue. Arriving at a decision of whose fault it is that hungry or tired kids are not learning in school is not going to get anyone any closer to helping those kids learn. We, all of us, need to put our egos on the shelf and our thinking caps on, so that we, together, can come up with some creative way to meet the needs of these kids. Regardless of cultural or ethnic differences, we have to teach the kids we get, not the ones we wish we had.
Post a Comment