Response to "Unemployment Training"

I found this article particularly relevant to my current placement at EHHS, an urban school. I found the article startling, and also agreed with most things the author said.

Urban schools are truly preparing most of their students, at least the ones pre-determined as "unsuccessful" or "trouble", for unemployment. Yes, not everyone will go to college. But it is still vital for those individuals to find a place in the work force. I agree that many urban teachers accomodate students because it is so much easier to say to the student "thank you for showing up" than it is to demand work/learning out of that student when they show up once every few weeks or so.

It will be very difficult for urban teachers to enact the changes stated in the article, but I believe they need to be done. And, honestly, I think suburban and rural schools could use these changes as well. I see many of these issues as a generational problem, not just isolated to urban schools. For example, at E.O. Smith students were allowed to have iPods. The EO Smith fashion statement is to wear one ear phone during class. This is completely unacceptable and I put an immediate stop to it during my student teaching. I had some pretty decent "battles" with a few resistant students because they were so used to being accomodated. iPods and cell phones have NO place in schools.

Teachers need to be stronger, I suppose. We can no longer just live to survive the day, as the author stated. By doing that, we are preparing the future generations for laziness and unemployment. I know I decided to become a teacher so I could change the world. I wanted to influence young people to make the world a better place. But accomodating students poor attitudes and excuses will help the world not at all.

Another important point I found in the article was the outlook you needed to provide urban students. As the teacher, you need to make them feel important and needed. I agree; getting in the kids face about doing work and showing up is not going to help. The students ideals of "respect" and street ideology will kick in and it will be a never ending battle. But working with the student as a team will be a far more supportive environment and will hopefully encourage the student to learn.

In the end, I think this article should be posted in every urban, suburban, and rural school across the country. I see the same type of accomodation the author spoke of at EHHS. Yes, some accomodations from the teachers are done for survival. As a teacher, you would burn out so fast if you had a battle of idealogy with students everyday. But start with small things first, and then move on to bigger issues. But whatever changes enacted need to be enacted district wide so the the middle and high school students never have the chance to learn how to squeeze out of the rules and to be accomodated. With any luck, these changes will create a stronger generation years down the road.