The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students’ learning and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community…
One of the problems that occur in many public schools today is the need for one if not both parents and guardians to work outside of the home in order to provide for their family. With people commonly having more than one job, it is not easy to also manage the household and be an active part of their child’s schooling. In order to be a good teacher, a person must understand that everyone leads different lives and experiences different circumstances. For an elementary school teacher, life may include consistent pay and set hours because of college and further education. For parents, however, the is certainly not always the case. For some, college was a dream at one time. For others, even a college degree could not help them in an economy such as the one being experienced currently in this nation. There is a quote that I learned many years ago that has always stuck with me. “ Be nice to everyone you meet, they’re fighting a battle you know nothing about” How true are these words? How can anyone assume they know all about another person simply by the children the parent sends to school? We cannot allow ourselves to start labeling or categorizing parents and students into the ones that care versus the ones that don’t.
The teachings and reading of Lisa Delpit directly apply to this issue. The culture of power that Delpit discusses can clearly relate to the lifestyle that a teacher may lead compared to the many different situations parents of the students are facing. The parents who are not included in the culture of power are sometimes quickly judged as uncaring parents. Yet, ironically, the parents simply do not know what to pass down to their children. They are not educated in the ways to prepare their child for school or respond when the child is not performing at certain levels. In fact, Delpit points out that parents commonly feel it is the schools job to educate and make sure the child knows what they need to know. Since the school feels the parents need to initiate learning experiences ast home as well, confrontations and assumptions easily arise. Without the teacher at least attempting to help both the student and parents they know, progress cannot be made. Unfortunately, it is the children that would suffer from the failure to communicate.
Considering that our class is tutoring in different parts of the Providence, I think a challenge for us collectively and me personally would be understanding who the children are and what they go home to. Considering that as a teacher I would have a steady income and plan to live life a certain way, I fear I would have trouble relating to those who do not have time to check their child’s homework or help with school. Hopefully by the time I am teaching I will be able to accept more ways of life willingly and without judgment. For some reason, the class I am tutoring in does not mention home life at all. Sometimes I will here a student relate a lesson to something they did outside of school. Other times I can get the three students I personally work with to open up a little but. Mainly, however, I only see interactions between teachers and students that include school time activities. I would assume that the teacher does have communication with parents and knows her students well enough to know which languages they speak at home or what their situations entail. That may be the only way for me to learn, trough experience as a teacher. Trial and error as well as watching what others teachers do will probably how we all learn.
In my classroom I would hope to effectively reach out to the parents of my students. By making myself available for their questions and concerns as well as offering routine updates to be sent home, the parents will know I appreciate any help they offer. I would also like to involve parents in classroom activities, discussions, and lessons. Once I know the parents, I will be able to use what they can offer to help both their child as well as other students. Challenges may include work schedules, language differences, and cultural differences between myself and parents. All I can do is try to understand their viewpoint and work with them to reach common ground. I firmly believe that by being understanding and open minded, I can work with parents to give their child the best education possible.
One of the problems that occur in many public schools today is the need for one if not both parents and guardians to work outside of the home in order to provide for their family. With people commonly having more than one job, it is not easy to also manage the household and be an active part of their child’s schooling. In order to be a good teacher, a person must understand that everyone leads different lives and experiences different circumstances. For an elementary school teacher, life may include consistent pay and set hours because of college and further education. For parents, however, the is certainly not always the case. For some, college was a dream at one time. For others, even a college degree could not help them in an economy such as the one being experienced currently in this nation. There is a quote that I learned many years ago that has always stuck with me. “ Be nice to everyone you meet, they’re fighting a battle you know nothing about” How true are these words? How can anyone assume they know all about another person simply by the children the parent sends to school? We cannot allow ourselves to start labeling or categorizing parents and students into the ones that care versus the ones that don’t.
The teachings and reading of Lisa Delpit directly apply to this issue. The culture of power that Delpit discusses can clearly relate to the lifestyle that a teacher may lead compared to the many different situations parents of the students are facing. The parents who are not included in the culture of power are sometimes quickly judged as uncaring parents. Yet, ironically, the parents simply do not know what to pass down to their children. They are not educated in the ways to prepare their child for school or respond when the child is not performing at certain levels. In fact, Delpit points out that parents commonly feel it is the schools job to educate and make sure the child knows what they need to know. Since the school feels the parents need to initiate learning experiences ast home as well, confrontations and assumptions easily arise. Without the teacher at least attempting to help both the student and parents they know, progress cannot be made. Unfortunately, it is the children that would suffer from the failure to communicate.
Considering that our class is tutoring in different parts of the Providence, I think a challenge for us collectively and me personally would be understanding who the children are and what they go home to. Considering that as a teacher I would have a steady income and plan to live life a certain way, I fear I would have trouble relating to those who do not have time to check their child’s homework or help with school. Hopefully by the time I am teaching I will be able to accept more ways of life willingly and without judgment. For some reason, the class I am tutoring in does not mention home life at all. Sometimes I will here a student relate a lesson to something they did outside of school. Other times I can get the three students I personally work with to open up a little but. Mainly, however, I only see interactions between teachers and students that include school time activities. I would assume that the teacher does have communication with parents and knows her students well enough to know which languages they speak at home or what their situations entail. That may be the only way for me to learn, trough experience as a teacher. Trial and error as well as watching what others teachers do will probably how we all learn.
In my classroom I would hope to effectively reach out to the parents of my students. By making myself available for their questions and concerns as well as offering routine updates to be sent home, the parents will know I appreciate any help they offer. I would also like to involve parents in classroom activities, discussions, and lessons. Once I know the parents, I will be able to use what they can offer to help both their child as well as other students. Challenges may include work schedules, language differences, and cultural differences between myself and parents. All I can do is try to understand their viewpoint and work with them to reach common ground. I firmly believe that by being understanding and open minded, I can work with parents to give their child the best education possible.
posted by Brianna at
8:51 AM
2 Comments:
Bri,
I agree with your post and all of the ideas and points you illustrated in it. I feel the exact same way when I enter the classroom. I go in there and think of the students to be in the same position that I was in when I was their age, but they truly are not. Their lives are so much more difficult and their home life is not always good. When I was younger I always found myself relating school activities to things that occurred at home, but I do not hear this in my classroom. It truly saddens me that these children do not have a privileged life, where they can just be kids who go to school and do not have any other worries. The only thing that we can do as teachers, is educate them and make their time in school as best as we possibly can.
I completely agree with you when you talked about Delpit and the parental situation that occurs at home. Many people think that a parent is not involved in their child’s education simply because they do not want to be, but this is extremely false. Many parents work two or even three jobs so they can put food on the table for their family. Even working multiple jobs, they sometimes fail to make ends meet. This is a problem that needs to be recognized by society. A parent should be able to be involved in their child’s education and still work, but wages from one job often do not make enough for the family to live on. This is a sad reality that the children in poverty stricken areas all over are suffering from, and it is going to be our job as teachers to realize this and make the best of the situation!
Hey Brianna!
First of all, I love your new background. It’s adorable. =]
I also want to let you know that I always find reading your blogs interesting. You never fail to meticulously analyze all the different aspects and angles you can take from the prompts. It’s always interesting to see where you will take the next one. It’s also interesting to read because we volunteer at the same school and I’m always curious to see what other people think of it.
I also have to agree with what you said about the students we tutor and their family situations being different from ours. The quote you added was great. It’s so true; we can never fully understand what anyone else is going through, so we can’t just jump to conclusions about them, especially based off of their children. It seems like your teacher knows more about her students’ family life more than mine does, though. Whenever I ask her questions about her students’ home life, she can never give a straight forward answer. She always talks around it and comes up with a ballpark figure that is sort of helpful, but not what I usually expect. It’s still amazing to me that even by the beginning of May this teacher doesn’t know her class well enough to even say how many parents speak Spanish. I can only hope that I will be able to be more engaging with my students’ home life and try to understand each one of their situations more. Maybe both their parents work 2 jobs each or maybe the student is one of seven kids (like one of the student’s I tutor) and the parents just don’t have enough time after their work day to read over each one of their kids’ homework to check for mistakes. Hopefully by May in the school year I’d be able to know this type of information.
I can tell that you’re going to make a great teacher. Kids and parents are going to love you because you’ll be understanding and sympathetic to their own personal situations and will give each child that walks through the door of your classroom the best possible education you can!
Great job and I’ll see you in class tomorrow =]
-Molly
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