well, I started this blog to write about spirituality and religion and now I don't know what to write about.
The kids at school were hilarious today as per usual. I am starting to connect more with some of them. One thing that makes me think though are the kids labeled as "problem" kids. My boss is very quick to point out the ones who come from "troubled" homes, the ones we should expect to "act out". This kind of annoys me. NO, it really annoys me.
I guess its good to know some history on the kids, but I don't like the way they are already permanently labeled at 6, 7, 8 years old as "problems". I guess I can see myself in them a little bit and have a lot of empathy because of that. I wonder if my school teachers and the staff involved working with me and my siblings stood around summarizing our "troubled" past each school year. It sucks to be so young and already labeled like that.
I also like listening to the kids. They have a lot to say! Today I talked to this one boy who told me about how he got into a fight with this other kid earlier in the morning. He said the other kid started it. I believed him. He looked like he was telling the truth. Anyway, this poor kid is stressed out because now he has to miss two full days of recess. I agreed with him that it sucked. He said it, I just agreed.
Saying something "sucks" is also another "rule violation", but the kid clearly wasn't conscious of breaking the rule, was in enough trouble already and I am frankly already tired of trying to enforce the 100 plus commandments of this particular school. I think the important ones are: don't hurt each other, don't hurt yourself and play nice.
As it stands at this particular school, there are 3 poster boards full of rules and many of the rules, well, the kid had it right-- they are ridiculous and yes -- they SUCK.
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2 comments:
I don't like the way they are already permanently labeled at 6, 7, 8 years old as "problems"
I completely agree. It's difficult for teachers to be prepared without forming biased opinions. My brother's a math teacher at Capitol and his policy is to get students records but not look at them until after they've established themselves in his class. In this way, they have the opportunity to turn over a new leaf if they're so motivated.
Once in high school, I was late turning in a paper, and my teacher gave me an extension. I paused for a minute and realized that he never gave the "problem kids" an extension. Maybe I had earned this right by always being on time and such, but maybe my nice clothes and good home had earned me this privilege. It made me realize that if you get on the wrong side of the fence for any reason, and people start labeling you in a bad way, it must be pretty hard to get on the good side.
I like your brother's idea. The worst example of this that I've seen was in the elementary school where I did Americorps. At the end of the year one of the teachers I worked with actually wrote the word "trouble" on the index cards of students who had displayed behavioral problems. This extremely bothered me, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
I guess it's a tough call. On the one hand it seems important that the teacher has the information so they can (ideally) be more empathetic/understanding/patient/prepared.
Hmmm.. I wonder what happens/ what would happen when class analysis (not just economics) is taught to middle school/high school students.....
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