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.

EHHS vs. E.O. Smith Culture

After two weeks at East Hartford High I have seen major cultural differences between EHHS and E.O. Smith, where I student taught.

For starters, EHHS has a much greater diversity in its students and staff. Just listening to the teachers and the students, there are so many "dialects" spoken. To me, each "dialect" is a representation of each culture in the school. The thing I admire about the students and staff is that all the languages and the cultures seems to mix together, at least to a greater extent than at E.O. Smith. It makes the culture of EHHS so much richer and vibrant.

E.O. Smith is a typical rural school. It is predominantly white with very little cultural diversity. When I student taught, I could tell the students had little to no exposure to cultures other than their own. Some comments the students made were border line racist. The students themselves were not KKK card carrying members, but it was obvious they had never been in a school system where saying certain words or certain jokes would end with a punch in the face.

The other major difference I see between EHHS and E.O. Smith, is the pride and personality of the students and teachers at EHHS. I attribute this pride to the fact that the teachers and students at EHHS have to work so much harder for what they get. They are a poorer school district and the test scores are not the best. I was pleasantly surprised when in the first staff meeting the principal put up a power point slide saying that the scores on the CAPT test had gone up 2% and all the teachers in the auditorium clapped. I can see the pride in how everyone in EHHS walks around the school. They have to fight to earn what they have, and they are proud of it.

E.O. Smith, though a good school, lacked personality and spirit. It was disheartening! E.O. Smith is a well supplied school and the students have little respect for the school property. Spirit Week came around during my student teaching and out of my 80+ students, only one student dressed up to show his school pride. That one student got teased by his peers in my class because he was showing pride in his school! As if that is something to be teased about! Even at the staff meetings, it was obvious that the some of the teachers would be more content to complain about little details than show some pride and fix it.

These differences illustrate how important it is to embrace cultural diversity and expose all students to diversity. Many students in rural schools act and say the things they do because they have had no exposure to outside cultures and haven't developed a sense of respect for other peoples. It is also just as important to develop a school culture and pride. Developing true school spirit will make school that much more energetic and exciting for both students and teachers.