Fairness in Schools

          Fairness in schooling is a concept that we continuously seem to be missing the mark on.  Many people feel that not getting the same exact treatment as someone else is just unfair.  It is natural for young children to see that fair means the same but we as educators and parents have to show them otherwise.  Just recently I observed an incident where a student saw unequal as unfair.  I was in a team taught class where I was substituting for the special education teacher while the general education English teacher was conducting the lesson.  The lesson was meant to be for the teacher to tell a story called “The Giving Tree” and the students were to do a writing assignment afterward.  Several students were laughing during the reading so the teacher told the class that instead of doing the more fun activity they were going to have to write a graded essay on respect.  Many students moaned and groaned but got to writing soon after.  One of the special education students seemed to just shut down.  He was visually upset that he missed out on the story and refused to write.  The teacher offered him the opportunity to sit at the computer and have the story read to him through YouTube.   

            As a teacher I understood that this teacher knows this student well and realized that punishing him because he was not going to write because of different emotions was not fair.  This student needed something different in order for him to get confidence back to perform in the classroom.  However, as the teacher was doing this for the particular student I heard another student say to her friend “that’s special treatment”.  This completely goes back to the idea that people see sameness as fairness.  Had this been my own class and I heard a student say this I would have used the opportunity to discuss this issue of fair not always being the same.  An even better idea to be proactive and prevent an incident like this would be to talk to students in the beginning of the year of some students needing accommodations that others may not need.          

           Like Malcolm Gladwell discusses in his lecture on the pursuit of perfect Pepsi/sauce/pickles, we need to have an understanding of variability and we need to address these differences in people.  Whether a student be diverse because of language, ability, social class, we have to realize these differences and find ways to reach these students.  In Jackson and Cooper’s reading, they say that teacher-student relationships are vital.  I think before we can truly help our students to succeed, we need to build a relationship with them that involves respect and trust.  It is hard to help students if they do not open up to you and tell you what their true concerns are.  In order to get students to open up in the classroom, it is essential for a teacher to build a good rapport with his/her students and make them feel safe and comfortable.  Once we know more about these students we can find ways to get them to become better learners and people.

Assessment and Learning

           I think looking at this statement from a general point of view it may be true however, I feel that a good teacher knows if their students are actually learning or getting something out of a lesson.  Administrators and people in the State Education department determine if students are learning based on their standardized Regents test scores.  If a student gets below a 65% on a Regents exam, administrators see this as this student is not learning but a score 65% or above means the student is learning.  As teachers we know that this is definitely not true.  There are so many factors that can affect why a student passes or fails a test.  Some students are just naturally poor test takers.  With so much importance placed on one test, the anxiety level of all students goes up.  This can cause a student to completely forget everything they studied for to pass the test.  I know that if I have students asking questions, having discussions, and participating in the class that these students are learning something.

            Another big factor related to students’ learning is that teachers are so focused on teaching to the test.  This takes away from teachers being able to create authentic teaching moments in the classroom.  In “No Kinda Sense”, Delpit states that “students rarely get to talk in classrooms” (pg. 40).  I think this is because teachers are so focused on delivering all the material that students need to know for their Regents exam.  Unfortunately I have experienced this in my own classroom.  Last year I taught an upper level Regents class which also happened to be the first year of this course’s curriculum.  Almost every day we were doing a new topic so that left little time to review skills that students struggled with or major issues that students were facing.  I offer extra help but many students are working or hate the idea of spending more time in school than they have to so they don’t take advantage of this extra time. 

            Like I stated in my discussion board post, I like to try to incorporate effort into my grading.  Something that I have thought of using is participation points.  Students can be given 20 points per day and lose points if they are not prepared, are talking in class, or are not working.  On the flip side, students can gain points by going up to the board or going above and beyond in the classroom.  I also have collected sheets that we do together to give points to students that are following along and doing what they are supposed to be doing. 

Neoliberalism - Week 3 Readings

The readings this week really struck a chord with me for a lot of reasons.  Prior to these readings, I had no idea what neoliberalism was and probably could not come up with a close definition.  Now I realize what it is and its impact on our education system.  Our government feels that our schools are a dumping ground for excess money and there is nothing coming out of it.  This saddens me as the little money that schools do get are being used to save jobs and keep our schools running altogether.  Neoliberalists only look at numbers and money and since schools are not making money for our government they look at schools as worthless. 

      Michael Apple discusses the use of the “blame game” in his reading.  The dominant groups are blaming those below them while we feel it is our government’s fault that our economic status is so poor right now.  After reading this I realized that most of this blame can be placed on big businesses and corporations.  These businesses are outsourcing their products to save money and because of this, people are losing jobs and their families are suffering.   Because of this, I also feel there is no sense of patriotism or pride in our country and ourselves.

      Something else I found interesting in Apple’s reading was the part that discusses the state of our labor market.  There seems to be a push for people to become proficient in technology and go to school to learn technical skills, there is hardly a demand for these types of jobs right now.  We tell our students that they need to work hard and go to college so that they can get jobs but the fact is the majority of jobs available are those of cashiers, retail workers, waitresses/waiters, truck drivers, etc.  Most of these jobs do not even require a high school diploma never mind a college degree.  I used to always feel that an education is never wasted but with times being this bad, it is hard to hold strong to this idea.  People are going into thousands of dollars worth of debt to try and build up their education and skills in hopes of getting a good job but then they come to realize there are no jobs and now they have to start paying their college loans.  It is an unfortunate thing. 

      The chapters in Adolescent Literacy showed that both teachers and students want to get out of this funk of just getting through and feeling that the content material is not relatable to students.  It is possible for students to be excited and willing to learn but there is almost no room for this with such a strict curriculum.  I wonder if we are forced to deal with a “teaching to the test” atmosphere or if at some point we can say enough is enough and teach the way we would like to teach.