What Matters Here?
The first four chapters are full of data that resonated with me and overwhelmed me too. Teaching in Oklahoma City and Lapwai I see the inequalities. I kept interrupting my husband watching the World Cup to say listen to this....and wanted to yell “AMEN SISTER!” Many of the facts I felt backed up what I know in my heart but I don’t have the words for. Issues and data like the correction and education spending I’d stop and ask my husband about because as someone who used to work for the House of Representatives in Oklahoma and now he works so closely with the lawmakers of Idaho and in D.C. he sometimes explains the budgets to me - he has always told me that education is the biggest portion of a state’s budgets so I felt that her statement was a little misleading but still true. Corrections has risen greatly and with all the research I have done over the last twenty years since I went to college, if you invest in kindergarten you wouldn’t have to invest as much in prison. ( Also keep in mind early childhood is defined as preschool through third grade.)
Early childhood issues really touched my heart because of course that’s where I feel the strongest, but as someone who has moved to a very small, poor community I also felt strongly as a mother. As a teacher, I know that the parents of the children in Lapwai want their children to learn and succeed. They may not have the education or the resources that my husband and I do, but they do care. They want to know how to teach their children and they want to their children to be successful. We as teachers have somehow taken that attitude that poor parents and kids don’t care. They just don’t have the resources or someone to care for them.
So back to the point...What matters here?
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor Frankl
I can choose my attitude towards my children and my expectations about them. I choose to believe they all can and will be successful. They will learn. It’s all overwhelming and I do care a lot about the outside issues and world but I truly believe that I can matter for my classroom. I can matter and be the quality teacher they need. The studies show they lack vocabulary and I am going to give it to them every opportunity I can. They don’t have a minute to loose. I teach them words like perseverance, loyalty, resiliency, curiosity and more. They use those words in their everyday speaking my the end of the year. Others tell me they can’t learn those words at 5 or in Lapwai BUT they can and they do because I expect that they will.
They are going to get science, social studies and art in my room also. Yes there are standards to meet and tests but I am going to teach to the style that meets their needs and then they are going to perform well on the tests. I have for the past 17 years. And for anyone thinking “she teaches kindergarten” For 12 of those years I did teach first and second grade too. You can be the teacher you know how to be and the test will take care of itself. I think I need to go to bed I sound preachy - sorry.
Here is the sign on my classroom door:
“You are now entering the classroom of the world’s brightest and best students. Please sharpen your intellect, your assertiveness, and your perseverance, for we shall surely challenge you, also, to be the best you can be.”
I love that you remembered to focus on what you have control over..."I can choose my attitude towards my chilren and my expectations about them." I am very much in support of this idea and think it really applies to your situation and ties into the book when she talks about the expectations we place on students when challenging the idea of tracking and how it limits access to different strands of curriculum thus furthering the inequality. Students of all abilities deserve to be challenged, have high expectations placed upon them, and to have people around them who believe in their abilities. I focused more on the big picture and your post was a great reminder to also think about my own craft and classroom.
ReplyDeleteJamie I could not agree more on the fact that parents do care about their child's education, they just don't know how to do it. Often they lack the resources and education themselves on how to work with their children. I have had so many instances where after showing parents things they could do at home the kids showed vast improvement. I have also found the majority of parents want the best for their child they just don’t know what that is or how to get it. Families that have always had means know how to work the system and get everything they can out of it, giving their child the upper hand. Families who do not know how to do this assume that what we are providing is the best, when often times it is not. Early intervention should include parents. Giving them the tools they need to help their kids adapt and start from the same point as everyone else.
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