As teachers I think we sometimes forget that are students are more than just uniforms seated behind desks and in chairs. We sometimes forget that each child, in every row, is unique, different and real. During the past week I took some of my students to ASA Wright Nature Center, and it was such a great experience to get to know my students even better. To know the things they like, and what excites them. I mean I cannot attempt to educate if I do not know the consumer. Media companies spend hundreds and thousands of dollars just to find out what entices the consumer, what will make them spend and buy what they have to offer. The question is for teachers, how are we selling education?
Teachers provide a service, and unlike Digicel or Bmobile, we can't afford the "dropped calls", or leaving any student behind whilst giving instruction. Students are real people. Who come from real issues, issues that even I would not dare to deal with. Through no fault of their own they are sometimes thrust into situations that they have no control over. No say. I look back at my own pathway through education and remember exactly the teachers who cared and who did not. I remember distinctly who took the time to listen and the ones who only taught a subject.
I figure that if I can remember and know these things to this very day, my students must feel and "measure" in the same ways - if not with a stricter rubric than I would have used. I for one have learned that as a teacher I am a learner. I never think too highly of myself as to not be able to learn from any one of my students. My students are not unthinking dolls made of plastic. They have problems, issues and stories just like any other human being. They have something to offer the world and I fear that too many of them feel unnoticed and unimportant.
If we as adults hate to be put into categories and generalized, why would we do the same to our children? Real people. Real lives. Real issues. Think about it.
3 comments:
So true... I can count the amount of caring and understanding teachers i've had on one hand!!!
Choice.
I think that it is important to give students, choices. Even small ones.
I try to do this, the puzzle game tests the same skill/knowledge.
I see my students covering their pockets with their hands and I think it is hard to assert identity from behind the uniform.
We judge too quickly.
I have started a new blog, Miss Jones. Career is not teacher though, I'm trying for sensory integration occupational therapist.
Most of my students have learning disabilities. And some of their teachers tell them they are stupid. But when a 11 year appears to have given up on himself.
And the 14 year old has an undercurrent of anger just below the surface.
I know, as hard as it is for myself as a mild dyslexic, if I get through the studying myself. I can make a difference.
Thank you for your comments! It is true students need choices, because the fact is - the classroom may be one of the few places they can voice their opinion.
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