Blog Post #2
I could really relate to the quote about how the department chairs and teachers, "believe that their role was to prepare students for the world of work and build responsibility was an important educational objective"(5). I remember getting "preparedness grades" during my middle school years. Besides receiving grades on what we learned, our teachers would check to see if we all had our notebooks, textbooks (properly covered of course), #2 pencils, blue or black pens (no gel pens), etc. Even if we weren't going to use our textbooks that day we were still required to bring it with us to class and if we happened to misplace our pencils we would receive a zero for the day and be reprimanded in front of the class, followed by the now cringe-worthy question, "Does anyone have an extra pencil that Leah could borrow? She is unprepared for class." I hated the attention brought upon me, not because I left my 30 cent pencil somewhere, but because I always did my homework, classwork, and scored well on tests and quizzes, yet was getting publicly embarrassed for a simple mistake.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an educator and before reading any kind of scholarly texts on the subjects, I knew I would never be the teacher who publicly embarrassed her students for small things. I secretly resented that teacher for calling me out in front of the class, when she had a cup full of perfectly sharp pencils (the school provided to her for free by the way) sitting neatly on her desk. How hard could it be to quietly hand a student a pencil? Well, its actually quiet easy because I do it all the time. My students are never without a writing utensil because they either bring their own or are free to use the abundant of pencils that I have in my desk.
I see the importance of teaching students responsibility, but there is a time and place for it. I chose to pick my battles and the Battle of Ticonderoga already happened over 200 years ago.
Reading about framing and positioning made me reflect on my own teaching. I enjoyed reading the discourse between the 11th grade English teacher and her class. It reminded me of how I speak with my students. I don't sugarcoat or expect less of them. I actually expect more from them because I want to succeed and overcome the challenges that some of them face.
I was sorry to hear about your bad experience in middle school. I guess many of us might recall an irrational, power-mad teacher (or teachers) from our past. At least you took something positive away from the experience and are passing that positivity along to your students. And I believe you made a good point about teachers who see it as their job to impose their concept of "responsibility" on their students. I think we could do with a lot less of those humiliating methods in our classrooms.
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