As the Wolk article states, there is much controversy in teaching values in the classroom. This is a concept that I have many mixed feelings about. I believe that many values should be instilled in the home. Parents have their own values and beliefs; it is their right to pass these on to their children. Furthermore, parents may have beliefs that contradict those of the classroom teacher. In teaching contradictory values, the teacher is inadvertently telling the child that his or her parents are "wrong." This can be very confusing for the child and may also introduce feelings of discomfort in the child.
My uncertainty comes about when a child is making decisions that are considered "poor" in a school setting. For instance, if a child is showing signs of violence or gang relations, schools often intervene in order to try and place the child on a different path. However, what happens if the child has parents who are in a gang? By interfering with the child, he is also being told to go against his parents' values. While it is obvious from a teacher's perspective that gang involvement is wrong, who are we to judge? I'd be interesting in hearing other people's perspectives on this subject matter.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I agree with Hilary when she states that many values should be instilled in the home, however I do believe that there is an "invisible line" that has to be drawn. Of course, this is hard to say because questions such as, "Where is the line drawn? Who gets to make those decisions? And whoever does, is that right?" In Hilary's scenario, I would say that I would try to "put the child on the right path" so-to-speak because of the fact that harm may come to that child or others if nothing IS done. That would be my personal line, and I believe it does have to do with your own (in this case, a teacher's) priorities and values. I do understand how Hilary said that it would be instilling that the parents are "wrong" or maybe even bad people, which is not the message you want to send, but I would feel as if I had no choice.
I would look at it this way. What if something happened to that child or someone else? Personally, it would be hard to live with myself if I did NOTHING to help that child beforehand. As I am debating to myself, I could also see the point that a child could be harmed IF you tried to steer them clear of gang activity. (by the other gang members) To reiterate Hilary's frustration, I do believe this is a hard question to answer, and believe that there is not a right answer. In my case though, I would try to help the child.
I would agree that helping the student would be the only thing to do. Now you can do this in my opinion while being senestive to that student's home life. I would try to give the student a safer path to follow. Like Woke says in his article by creating a community in the classroom that might give the student some self worth and feeling of importantance that is outside of gangs. I would also try to get the student to see a life that is without gangs. After school activities that could involve parents would be a way for the student to see their family being positive. This is a tricky subject and what is right should be done but being careful not to make the student's personal feelings hurt or confused. I am not sure if this was confusing to anyone but I think I got what I wanted to say accross.
I agree that helping the child is the only thing to do because of our background knowledge dealing with gangs and also as a teacher we want our students or the children in the school to be safe. However, the post brought up a good point about what if the parents were in gangs? You do not want to confuse the child or tell them that what their parents are doing is wrong, but you may so to speak try to show them the "right" path as Kaitlin said too. As a teacher, you do not want to see harm or anything done to the child or others. The teacher would have to have a way of doing this without making the parents come off as wrong or unsafe or even bad people. My question is what or how is the best way to do this?
This is a tough topic because we teach to children to believe in their values and morals. If this is a value that was instilled in the child by the parents, then it may be hard to get them to see the "other" side to this debate. There may not be a right answer, but i would help the child without being negative towards their parents.
I also like what Jason said about after school activities so that the child and parents are both in positive situations. Then the child will see not only the parents involved but also in a positive way.
One thing that I have noticed is that when a child does something inappropriate in the classroom, a teacher may respond with "Jane Doe that is not appropriate for class" or something along those lines. I feel that this is something that would come up with the whole issue of what values are accepted in home and at school. I think that it is not in our position to say it is wrong for you or your parents to be in a gang, but rather to instill in them that there are other positive things they can be doing. One example of this is with extra curricular activities or even big school events such as: pool parties, rollerskating, sporting events, etc. If we are taking that child out of the situation that could result badly, than we can be helping that child a great deal.
A child that is in a gang or involved in gang-related activities may only be looking for attention. If they feel they are getting attention in the classroom and praise, I think this can help them feel important and maybe help to steer them away from poor choices. This question is hard to answer, and it is important to remember that each student is different and there may not be one correct way to handle the situation.
My teacher also addresses bad behavior in our classroom by telling the student or students that it is not appropriate behavior for our classroom community. She makes sure to tell the students that the behavior is not appropriate for our school and our classroom, not necessarily for everywhere. I was present for one incident where a student had provided inappropriate answers on his homework and I came across it while I was grading. My teacher called the student over and asked him to read aloud the answers. She asked him if he saw anything wrong with them and he said that his dad told him it would be a correct answer and why. My teacher told the student that it may be true, but we do not want to use language like that in our classroom here. She did not tell the student that the answer was wrong and that his father, who told him he could write that, was wrong also. She made sure that he understood that the language was not appropriate for our classroom.
I think that it is important for teachers to always keep in mind that they need to respect where their students are coming from. I think that in the situation of the students participating in a gang that their parents were also in you can't tell the student that being in a gang is wrong. You can however make sure the student knows how dangerous a gang can be and that they have other options. You do not want the student to become angry with you because you are putting down their values, but you also want to make sure that the student knows you care and want to see them safe. It may be very dificult for a teacher to not tell a student that something is bad behavior when they believe it is, but they need to keep in mind the feelings and values of their students so they do not offend them and push them away from the classroom.
The gang situation is a very difficult topic to discuss in school. As Kaitlin and many others have said, by explaining that gangs are bad, this may confuse the students into thinking their parents are wrong or doing a bad thing if they are indeed involved in a gang. This may lead to confusion/frustration which can eventually lead to students forgetting about school altogether, which is something that Mibruce touched upon. Pushing students away from school is the last thing that any teacher wants to do, so when discussing the topic of gangs or other values, it is important to always be careful of the approach you take.
When I was reading the posts, I was thinking about how a teacher should always instill proper 'classroom' behavior and I was going to give an example close to what Mibruce discussed. I think the situation that her and her teacher came across, with the students poor language, was handled perfectly. This is exactly how I would handle the situation and I would make sure my student understood classroom language vs. at home language.
Another spin/correlation to this topic, as I was reading, the issue of gangs reminded me of the movie Freedom Writers. The areas where we are teaching and living do not have many gangs present. I am not sure if it was just Hollywood’s spin, but what I understood from the movie was that almost everyone in the area the movie took place (LA) is involved in a gang, and if you are not part of a gang it is a poor choice, or something along those lines. So I guess I am saying is that because gangs are so apparent or the way of life in that area the thought of teaching against gangs would be very difficult and almost meaningless. The areas that we are in now I feel are easier steer a student in a different direction and it would be easier to provide extra curricular, an idea that Jason explained. But I like and agree with what everyone has been saying.
I agree that children should learn their values from their parents. It really isn't the right of the teachers to impose on a child's life at home if the child is learning from his/her parents. If a child's parents are involved in drugs or gang activities, it is going to be very hard to steer a child away from that. However, where does it ever stop then? We might be giving children the wrong message if their own parents are wrong sometimes but we do it because we do not believe kids should get involved in drugs and gangs. If we do not try to steer our kids from drugs and gangs then the cycle will continue. Children look up to their parents a lot, it is all they know. I do not like to sound negative about the issue but I believe it is a teacher's job to make the best decisions for her students. I would continue to explain the negative effects of drugs and violence. Like Kaitlin said, what if you felt like you were sending the wrong message to the child because they had parents involved but something happened to that child? Kids and adults can make bad choices, however school is a place where they should learn that drugs and violence are not okay. It's sad enough that so many of our studnets live in such terrible situations, I think we should try to help as many as possible.
Post a Comment