Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Promt 5: Johnson
Parent involvement is key when students are in school, especially at a younger age most students are always telling their parents if they did well on something. In my classroom my teacher enhances the parent involvement and makes sure that after every quiz or test she sends home a note to each parent. Whether it’s good or bad she sends it so that the parents will see how their child is doing, when they improve she makes note or if they seem to be dropping she makes note of that too. My teacher has told me multiple times about how she wants her students to excel and she feels that all of them will, but she believes in the parents for support.
Although I’ve seen only a couple notes come back from the parents this teacher is persistent to improve all her students’ grades. Also my teacher will not fail, every month she sets up meetings or even over the phone talks so that she can speak to the parents about their child and what they may need help with or just to tell them how well they are doing. She explained to me how it never works out because the parents are too busy, which she understands but she wishes there was more communication.
This leads me too Johnson. Johnson talks about the silence and how those people who are silent and not doing anything are not helping the problem. Although I’m not talking about race I feel privilege is extremely evident. The students in this school don’t have the privilege of their parents being able to come into meetings or talking on the phone to their teacher. The kids in the classroom have said it a hundred times, Mrs. ______ my parents are working or they just can’t come in. Most of these student’s parents don’t have time to meet with a teacher, instead they rely on the word of their child. With silence of the student, parent, and teacher it causes for problems for the student, in this case a lower grade.
Although Johnson mainly talks about race and the privilege of the White over Black or Hispanic I see the privilege these students don’t have, and due to that silence it seems to never prevail. My teacher is trying and she acknowledges that there is in fact a problem; she is trying to speak about what is happening. Although it may take time or not even work, the fact that she is making the effort to say “This isn’t right” is better than nothing at all.
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Hi Alysa!
ReplyDeleteI’m inspired by your teacher’s effort to communicate with the student’s parents, it appears she is really dedicated and thoughtful, clearly someone who understands the importance of family involvement, something you have clearly illustrated you valued too, with your mutual frustration .The shortcomings of this lack of communication, I can conspire with, in my classroom the teachers have made it known to me that many parents, are sadly too busy or have other reasons to not become active in their child’s schooling. I wonder if there are other reasons that parents do not want to meet, like linguistic boundaries. I do like the idea that on each quiz or test the teacher writes a report on the child’s efforts, this is a good way to make sure parents are seeing the grades and knowing their child’s overall schooling activity reliably from the teacher not as you said “rely on the word of their child”.
I can understand your agreement that Johnson’s idea of privilege applies to your setting because you interpreted it as the parents do not possess the privilege of time to come into meetings to become involved. I also see a connection to Dewey, Dewey talks about social groups and the interaction between the groups. The lack of communication can also be interpreted in this struggle, without communication, there is no supportive network for the student and bonds are not made between the two different cultural groups ( teachers and parents). You mention that “silence” is the problem, “My teacher is trying and she acknowledges that there is in fact a problem; she is trying to speak about what is happening” Communication, to tie everything, is what is needed for a success school environment and life environment, without it issues that plague the school environment today; like race, gayness , and privilege cannot be changed.
Hoped you enjoyed my two sense.
Christine