I want to start from the bottom of my list. The enormous chasm between low-achieving students and teachers who fail to reach them starts here.
“Students who do not invest themselves in school work are making an irrevocably bad decision and should be blamed for their own failures.”
This is something that most teachers accept as gospel. We teach. They learn. We spend hours doing our job, therefore they must be the ones who are at fault. We are experts. We know best. They are responsible for any errors that occur. It has taken me more than two decades in education to realize how pervasive, and detrimental, this attitude is. (and writing this isn’t going to make me popular in some circles….)
It isn’t that we are arrogant by nature. It is that we haven’t been able to see beyond our own experiences…..nor do we want to.
I am willing to bet that many teachers were highly successful at “school”…..and probably in the subject that they have chosen to teach. We “got” the game that was school. We were successful at keeping track of assignments, completing assignments and handing them in with as many bells, whistles and extra credit points as possible. Sure, we worked hard, but our work paid off because the methods used aligned with our strengths. We were the “gifted athletes” of our own playing field. Because it worked for us, we assume that it should work the same way for everyone. Especially in that subject. If they aren’t succeeding, it must be because they aren’t doing it right.
Many of us came from an environment that supported us in our desire to do well in school. Maybe our parents were teachers. Maybe they were educated. Maybe they weren’t but wanted that for their children. I’m not saying that all teachers came from a supportive home, but I am willing to bet that the majority did. So much so that it would be hard for us to really believe that there are families out there that are not supportive of education…..BECAUSE THEY SHOULD BE…at least in our minds.
Unfortunately, that is not the truth. Many adults have a long list of reasons why they are not supportive of schools nor of educators. Adults whose experiences have been very very different from ours. Adults who were damaged in some way by the educational system. Adults who succeeded without (or despite) the educational system. Adults who, as children, were so out of place in a school building that it was sheer torture for them each and every day. Adults who were convinced by the “educators” that they were less than acceptable.
There are adults, very bright ones, who have nothing but contempt for schools. Adults who were brighter than their teachers and who dared to challenge them. Then were punished for it.
There are adults who were abused, physically, emotionally or sexually by educators. How do you think they have raised their own children to perceive us?
There are adults who are afraid of schools. They have practices in their lives that they do not want uncovered. They do not welcome the invasion of teachers, principals or security officers in to their lives nor the lives of their children. They instinctively know that there is a real danger of their children seeking an emotional connection with another adult. They begin when the children are very young to convince the children that other adults, especially “official” ones, are not to be trusted. These kids have heard from their earliest moments that schools are filled with nosy, small-minded people who want to hurt them and their families.
MANY children are not raised to see any value in an education. Some have received no instruction about schooling, others are influenced by their caregivers’ negative experiences and still others are directly instructed that education, particularly past the secondary level has little to no value. They have also been raised to believe that teachers value education because they want to keep their jobs. Their suspicion of schools, and of us, is understandable given these circumstances.
Why is it then that we expect ALL of our students to understand the value of an education….as we see it.
Oh yes, we do expect it. Of every single one of them. Because when they don’t, we attach labels to them: ignorant, stubborn, too-social, lazy, immature, stupid, not living up to his/her potential…….
Sometimes we are saddened by it…sometimes we are angered by it. Sometimes we take it personally…sometimes we convince ourselves to ignore them because we don’t want to face it.
And in doing so….the gap just gets larger.
So what would happen if we looked at it differently? What would change if we thought….Yup, this isn’t working for this kid? What would be different if we accepted that what we do works for some, but not for others…..and for good reason? What could we affect if we looked at, and accepted, that it isn’t about “us and them”, but that it is about each child, one at a time? Because to reject the idea that students have been taught that schools (ie teachers) are not important is to ignore reality. To ignore a child’s reality is to ignore the child.
I just don’t want to do that anymore.
With love,
Laurie