Education+and+Urban+Society+July+15,+2013

The following quote struck me; “They believe that the students and the families are at fault because, from their perspective, “these children” enter school without the necessary prerequisite knowledge and skills and that so-called uncaring parents neither value nor support their child’s education.”(P151) I think that all teachers at one point have said something similar to this statement. It is true that students come to us with “deficits” beginning when they walk into the doors and as much as we talk about it we cannot do anything to change that fact. It is our job to figure out how to fix the problem. We have to think in terms of ourselves being part of the problem and not put blame on the other factors. As my principal would say, “No excuses.” Yes we have many obstacles and barriers to face because of the lack of background knowledge and exposure some of our students come to us with, but we have to figure out a solution to the problem instead of constantly harping on the problems these students come to us with. We have to change what we can change. Also, for the most part parents truly do care about their children no matter what we might think. They may have strange ways of showing it, but the majority of them do want what is best for their child. If you can get in good with the parent you have already conquered one battle. Parents genuinely want to help, we have to make it our priority to get them involved and help in educating them about what is best for their child. If they can they will be more willing to help. “An unwillingness to undertake change can often reflect attitudes of complacency on the part of educators” (p.151) Once again, I’ve been here before too. I feel sometimes overwhelmed when asked to change things because just when we learn something new they change it. The fact is that if we still have only 50% of our students performing on grade level then something has to change and we can’t be complacent. We have to figure out what works and continue working harder to make an impact. It is exhausting and draining to constantly feel like your best is never enough and no matter how hard you work you could work harder. In education this is how it is. There is always reflective teaching practice and thinking of how things could go better next time. Teachers can never have the attitude of “I did all I could do.”