The final in a series of three: Student issues in the classroom. Part 1<\/a> Part 2<\/a> Back in the day the mantra was, and still is, \u201call students can learn.\u201d By golly that\u2019s right, all students can learn; that is, \u201cwhen they want to learn\u201d and what they want to learn.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Students with other priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The fact that all students can learn cannot be denied. However, in the past as well as now, many students came into high school classrooms knowing what they were going to do upon graduation, and they were very content to work hard enough to get a D grade. Imagine a very capable student being encouraged by the teacher to apply himself more. Finally the student becomes annoyed with the teacher\u2019s persistence and says, \u201c\u2026It\u2019s nothing personal but I only need this class to graduate, so tell me how many points I need to get a D and I will handle the rest…\u201d Clearly this student has his own agenda.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Raise your hand if you want to be evaluated on how well you brought this student up to the expected academic standards.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Having other priorities is not only the case at high schools but research consistently shows that some students at all grade levels studied more after school hours than others, and the test scores generally reflected the difference in achievement. How much control does a teacher or principal have over those scenarios? Family and community have more control.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Even though better teacher evaluation tools may be necessary, neither the governor nor anyone else has produced an intelligible argument indicating that we can close the achievement gap by hammering out tighter teacher evaluations; that\u2019s because many Asian and white kids are causing the achievement gap by studying four hours a night after school while many black and brown kids are watching TV more than four hours a night. Perhaps we should spend more resources helping families and students assume responsibility for education.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Extending the school day and other options might be considered when families can\u2019t assume responsibility for education. However not many of those options will help the student who thinks carrying books, going to class, and studying are a \u201cwhite thing.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear, some families and students aren\u2019t capable, but we have to look at individual cases to determine who is and who isn\u2019t capable, and we assist on an individual basis. We can\u2019t assume that because a student says, carrying a book to class is a \u201cwhite thing;\u201d that it\u2019s a teacher\u2019s problem. Wrong,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n OK? Sure, we have to look deeper to see if that attitude is masking other issues, but sometimes we will find the only thing some such students need is firm guidance by those who have the authority to deliver firm guidance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Rather than go into the homes to work with students and families, it\u2019s probably easier to blame the teacher and the system for a few more years, find a few improvements, and wait for the next \u201ccrisis\u201d in education; the kind of recurring crises our nation has had in education since the Russians launched Sputnik back in 1957.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Meanwhile, just about every educator and parent already know that regardless of what a teacher does in the classroom, individual students have to apply themselves as well. Let\u2019s start a new mantra; anytime we hear someone mention the achievement gap the new mantra will be, \u201clet\u2019s try helping black and brown students learn to study more,\u201d we already know they can learn.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ultimately we have to realize that teachers are teaching human beings with free will and some with a few issues, and they teach subject matter second, especially in K-12.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Environmental Health<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n At one point in Kent schools we were extending the school year by bringing para-educators into a number of apartment complexes during the summer. In one of the complexes a little boy in diapers was playing outside in the sand near monkey bars. His toy was a piece of wood with a rusty nail protruding from it. The apartment manager said Johnny was about 3 years old and had recently been brought back to the apartment by the police after he was found taking items off the shelves at the nearby convenience store.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n When asked, where are the parents right now? As she dropped her head the manager replied, \u201cThe mother is inside.\u201d After a few seconds she lifted her eyes in tears and said, think of what will happen when Johnny enters school for the first time, having never had discipline and structure in his life. At school he has to stand in line, follow instructions, and stop taking whatever he wants, she added. Upon hearing that story, one person said, \u201cwow! That\u2019s what some teachers experience in the early years.\u201d The manager said, \u201cyeah, but think about Johnny also once structure is suddenly imposed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Through the schools\u2019 social mores, teachers and schools do as much to develop the whole human beings as they do to prepare students to pass the tests. Regardless of whether a student passes the test, too often we find the teacher, the custodian, the head secretary, the principal, the cook, the coach, the nurse, or the counselor may be the only stable influence in a child\u2019s life. That\u2019s the case at any grade level.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in the day the mantra was, and still is, \u201call students can learn.\u201d By golly that\u2019s right, all students can learn; that is, \u201cwhen they want to learn\u201d and what they want to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n