Readers of this blog will recall that I routinely look at issues of student engagement via our surveys, news articles, available research, and comments offered by students.
In this post we again here from students directly concerning the positive role that teachers and school can play for students in difficult personal and neighborhood surroundings. The insightful excerpted comments below come from 5 students in the Chicago Public Schools, courtesy of their English teacher, Ray Salazar.
One of the biggest reasons that students drop out is because they feel like the system is working against them. What that means in layman’s terms is that students don’t feel like their schools care about them… And let’s be honest, most of the time when we say ‘lower-income’ the hidden implication extends to minorities. As a minority students who has been around low-income schools all my life, I’ve seen it myself: students dropping out because they don’t feel like their teacher or school cares about them. – Barbara Cruz
As a teenager who grew up on Chicago’s South Side it is not uncommon to see violence on the streets, mostly from gangs. My own family has been broken due to poverty. I know the struggles. I know what it’s like to go to school reflecting on what my parents were arguing about, usually money. But when I got to school not giving a damn there was almost always one teacher who gave me the inspiration to get me through the day…. Therefore, teachers need to know how to read their students. Not just get them to do their work but to inspire them to be there. – Concepcion Morales
The way students feel in schools can make all the difference in whether they become successful or not. Teachers should realize that boredom plays the biggest role in the outcomes of a person’s life. If a student is interested in school because of the way a teacher operates the class, much of their energy will revolve around school which will lead them to success…. It is essential that schools are safe and interesting environments for students. – Jorge Lopez
School for me was a getaway from home back in 7th grade. My former teacher, Mrs. Reyes, was someone I looked up to and being in her class was always fun and interesting. After school, she’d give me piano lessons and I was always so excited to be there. Right after piano lessons, my parents would often argue. Instead of feeling sad or worries, I played piano or would do her homework to cheer me up….. A class room that’s boring involves a teacher who is always on her laptop, awkward, or not trying to engage her students…. If you’re motivated by your teacher, you feel hopeful for being successful. – Marilyn Hurtado.
Many people believe that good teaching cannot help students who have struggled in their homes and their neighborhoods. They believe that kids cannot overcome their struggles. However, I believe that good teaching can help a student overcome his or her struggles… An example of this was when my sister was in elementary school. One of my sister’s closest friends was shot and killed by a gang member…. My sister was depressed for some time when she finally got back to school, but something changed her mood at school. She was slowly getting over her friend’s death and began to focus on her work. She went on to graduate from 8th grade. – Nestor Navarro.
It is such honest accounts from kids that are so obviously missing in the current policy debate. What they tell us – if we will listen – is that school in general and teachers specifically have the power to make a great difference, for good or for ill – even in conditions of poverty and difficulty. Those who would fixate on such fine goals as “eliminating poverty” or “improving schools of education” seem to want to do everything but get their hands dirty, right now, by paying close attention to what today’s students – here, in front of us – need and deserve. And the good news shining through all these varied student essays is what I keep saying though my critics hate to hear it: that common-sense and do-able teacher actions can make a great difference – now. Make school safe; make it interesting and fun in class; have an interest in me and my life; inspire me, don’t just teach me stuff. How hard is this to commit to, now?
All the current noise – about “corporatists,” about whether Common Core is good or bad – misses the point, and is an easy refuge for adults in armchairs arguing adult issues. Reform begins with making school a great place for today’s kids; reform begins by really listening to the client and seeing what works and doesn’t work today, now. Why would we lose another generation of kids to score a few more policy points?
My deep thanks to Barbara, Nestor, Jorge, Marilyn, and Concepcion for taking the time to write to share their heartfelt thoughts. And thanks to Ray for reaching out to me to share their work. Clearly Ray knows a thing or two about empathy and inspiration.
21 Responses
Yesterday afternoon, in a Thanksgiving fueled inability to move, I read all my students’ answers on a reading unit assessment. Even in the short, up to 2-paragraph, answers; students voices were clear. I could see their strengths, their misunderstandings, and their personalities on the page. Your writing today is a reminder that this is what students value most. They want to know that teachers see them, hear them, and are teaching for them – not for evaluations or growth scores.
Nancy K, What do you see as their misunderstandings?
Today, I am thankful for this blog and for teachers such as Mr. Salazar who allow their students to have a voice in matters of their own education.
“All the current noise” does more than miss the point. It also drains us of our time– time we need to plan interesting lessons kids can relate to, time we need to continue reaching out to kids and their families, even professional development time.
In my district, for example, so much of our time this year has been spent on preparing and administering assessments and analyzing/reporting the data, that many of us are working into the late hours of the night to try and continue what we do so well– focusing on our kids and our interaction with them via personal, applicable, and interesting lessons. ALL of our professional development time has been spent on learning a new teacher observation system, which, frankly, is not developing me professionally. Our meetings are about how my (non-tested area) department can incorporate Common Core standards and techniques to bolster student scores on the upcoming state standardized tests. Oh, and did I mention? We’re doing it all without a contract.
We on the front lines are listening to the “client” and adjusting our plans based on what works/doesn’t work with our kids. Those of us who are teachers because of our passion for kids and educating (which, contrary to popularly-held belief, is the majority) want to spend our time focused on the very issues these students are raising. And, yes, many of these issues stem from societal issues that make a huge impact on the quality of their home lives.
Education reform needs to be more of an ACTIVE conversation between law makers, administrators, teachers, students, and their families. The powers that be need to stop underestimating school faculty and let us do our excellent jobs, for we are the ones with our fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in our schools’ communities and in our students’ lives.
Hear, hear! These Chicago students hit the nail on the head. And check out the “student voices” tab at How Youth Learn (dot org), for lots more of what kids have to say about their learning.
Grant, thank you! I value every opportunity there is to amplify student voice. May these wise young people’s ideas cut through the misguided, unproductive policy talk so that adults on all sides of the debate always–always–remember to put students first.
Thank YOU and the students, Ray! They deserve to be heard and I thank you for giving me the chance to have them heard by a wide audience of educators.
Thank you for sharing the candid views from the students! Such authenticity and transparency! Their feedback reminded me that I can make a difference in my students’ lives even though they might appear to be tough and unresponsive at that moment. I wonder what schools will be like if teachers get to determine their own professional development, assessment of the students, and evaluation of teacher effectiveness.
Your last sentence should indeed make us wonder. And, yes, we should never confuse external nonchalance and coolness for the inner state of adolescents.
I’ve got to say, though, that ALSO schools need to bring the families in. As a single mom in poverty, i often felt that the agenda of the schools was to break UP my family. I know it isn’t easy, but while the day to day is being done, and kids are being rescued, we need to shoot for the moon. We need to make our schools agents of education for all ages, and we need to WELCOME parents into the schools. And not by pointing out what we can do to help the professionals do the job of raising my kid. I felt like I was really fighting for my right to raise my kid, and what I needed was the ASSISTANCE of the teachers. There is too much animosity. Too many really nasty putdowns of people’s families in the break room. I’ve been a trained teacher and a single mom who came to believe that no amount of PTA was going to be able to bring about a true partnership.. Schools shouldn’t be helping kids “overcome” their families. They should be part of a broad movement to help families overcome their difficult circumstances. Participating in candy sales won’t do it.
Agreed. It’s like student government: schools want students and parents to behave completely on their own terms in far too many cases. In far too many schools, for example, parents do not have access to teacher emails or phone numbers. A simple example of what can be done: I saw 2 K teachers do this in a city school – produce a newsletter that went home every Friday telling parents what the week was about, what was upcoming, and activities parents could do to support the learning. Some schools offer classes for parents in English and parenting.
Another issue is scheduling teacher-parent conferences. In most schools it is done totally for the convenience of the school to cram a bunch of visits in in 1-2 days, in short installments, with no other times of day available. Why not have a 2 week period where it is spread out, and can be either in the early morning, late afternoon or evening on a rotating basis each day for 2 weeks?
On the other hand, it sounds like the PTA needs invigoration at your school. It can be a force for good when kit is well supported by parents.
Where I live, it is very rural, and there is a big split between those with college educations (providers) and those without (consumers). I understand the split, because politically it’s pretty uncomfortable. (I came here, a college educated anomaly, 18 years ago, from a more urban setting–because as a single parent, safe, clean, and well built housing was affordable). That really impairs collaboration. However, the doctors (and nurses, and ministers, when applicable) here are very often successful at breaking down that barrier, so I know it can be done.
The school administrations, however, do not make that a priority, unless your child is an athletic star. Much energy is focused on the children, but not much on the parents. I believe that really is at the heart of some things that are wrong in American society.
If I were running the planet, things like vo-tec, shop, home ec, and college prep would run concurrently in the buildings at night, even if at first there weren’t many students. You could have very interactive, hands-on family classes with NO age restrictions. Family health, first aid; home nursing skills… I’d personally like to teach a workshop on how to tell if stuff you read on the internet is well supported or not! And although the parents might not have college educations, they know an awful lot about other things. I could imagine a Foxfire-like setup, how to make banjos or something. The major adult education around here is bible study. But so much more could be done…
Let’s stop the rhetoric of “us” vs. “them” as you are doing. It tends to trivialize the real issues that are happening that drive the efforts against things like Common Core. These issues directly contribute to a worsening of the problems you highlight. I’ll be more specific:
1. “make schools safe”- As a country, trying to work on improving access to mental health care, reducing poverty, increasing access to community would help the most. This is something that would respond well to a “top down” approach in our school districts. And yes, one teacher can do everything they can to reduce this in their classrooms. But they are limited to what they can do. When they have 35 kids to teach, it is tough when they have to stop to deal with someone who is being aggressive or disruptive all the time. We need some other solution in our schools. And not the prison pipeline/zero tolerance solutions- they don’t work and make more criminals. We should be discussing this more. It makes it difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. When people see these issues and then hear millions of dollars will be spent on a new set of standards, new tests, technology and textbooks to support these tests, they get upset. None of these dollars are going to help make schools safe. Many are not against having standards. They are against devoting so many resources to this and not doing anything about safety.
2. ‘make it interesting and fun in class’- Standardized testing is a huge impediment to this. It’s hard to make it interesting when you can’t keep your class up on scope and sequence and you know your students will have to have their lessons stopped for a week due to diagnostic testing. There are teachers who would not be interesting and fun. But, there are many, many, many who would be and are struggling to do this due to all the imposing testing nonsense put on them. I know you agree with this but instead of noting this fairly, you say teachers “want to do everything but get their hands dirty” to what students need and deserve and “my critics hate to hear (that) teacher actions can make a difference”- Nice. Kind of a generalization and not very fair to those wonderful teachers who work their butts off to make it fun and interesting but can’t really because they are given a very boring FCAT workbook and told to use it every single day (for example). And Common Core/PARCC/etc is not helping this. How will this help teachers be more fun and interesting? It won’t. So, this is another issue that is not so black and white. No teacher decides to be boring and I’ve never heard anyone ever say that teacher actions cannot make a difference. They may be boring and burned out but giving them a new set of standards, a new way they have to test, new textbooks, etc isn’t exactly a way to inspire people who are burned out. How can we inspire them then? When teachers feel they have more of a choice with how to teach, can be creative and given space to try things that are different, they get inspired. These issues of teachers being boring or not inspiring are much more complex that how your present it here.
3. Your critics just “fixate on” eliminating poverty. So, I know you agree that poverty is a factor. And actually, we need to start discussing this more precisely- as low SES. It is not actually poverty. Studies look at low SES and that is really different from being poor. It has a social component that is critical. The students in your post discuss this as seriously impacting their lives. So, a teacher can inspire a student who is receptive to that. But, if our country wants to really improve education – we will look at legislation that improves the lives of children living in a low SES household. You seem fine with our legislators writing legislation to pay for Common Core and Federal Ed policy (NCLB and all). So, why are you also not encouraging that our legislators do something about children living in low SES households? Why can’t we do that? It’s an education issue. There are things that can be done- we’ve seen that at schools that provide community support for families that this helps. Reducing crime in neighborhoods improves education. We can support that too and write blogs about how that would help. “Critics” cry about eliminating this because it’s a big deal. It directly and daily impacts the education of children. No one- not even the most Pollyanna of us think that we can 100% eliminate low SES overnight. But it should be on the radar! Your post about it is dismissive of this. And wow, some people can chew gum and walk. Your comment implies that there are some who do not think we need any improvements other than “eliminating poverty”. This is simply not true and not what I have read and observed. No one I know thinks that. They just do not think spending millions of $$ on standardized testing is going to help kids who come to school hungry, emotionally strained, mentally ill, etc and are infuriated that we continue to do nothing about these issues. And this reflects on that safety topic too. If kids come in and are emotionally strained, given a standardized test on that day, fail it, are kept back – wow, what do you think will happen? Oh, but let’s just dismiss that and talk about how teachers can be more “fun” and “interesting” and that will solve everything. Just like I don’t think that your “critics” feel that poverty (low SES) is the only issue, I don’t believe you think that making teachers more interesting will solve all the issues. But, your rhetoric implies that. Maybe it’s time to put the rhetoric where it belongs- outside these discussions.
JupiterMom, thanks for replying. While you make some good points, the conversation has to be redirected to what teachers and adults in the building can control. Adults in schools can make schools safe or they can ignore the negative student behavior. I’ve been at both types of schools and left the latter. We cannot control the neighborhood or city. We can control and influence what happens in our buildings and classrooms.
As far as standardized testing goes, I’ve found ways to incorporate the English College Readiness Skills into our exploration of relevant topics: the relationship between music and culture, gun control debate. Common Core is also easily included if educators devote some time to thinking about and understanding them.
I get your point about addressing poverty. I don’t have the ability to influence that nationwide. I do what I can in my classroom and, for many years and for many students, I’ve helped students help themselves to become more confident and competent writer.
Again, you make some good points. But the ideas here are focused on what teachers and adults in the building can actually do with some hard work, collaboration, and a sincere interest in helping students succeed.
Indeed. I could not have said better what this work is about. Thanks, Ray, for putting it so well.
This tone is much, much better. I don’t completely agree with what you are saying but I enjoy this tone and this discourse. We should always strive to discuss in a manner that brings unites us rather than “us” vs. “them” tone using words like: “my critics”, “they fixate on”, “do everything but get their hands dirty”, and “current noise”. This was what my post was all about. Well, mostly about. I hope we agree on this point though.
Confronting and solving the out of school factors that JupiterMom correctly identifies would go a long way toward helping teachers better do what you rightly say must be done within the schools. It would lower the amount of time and effort that teachers must currently devote to such abatement activities and likely have the added benefit of cleaning up the signal to noise ratio, meaning eliminating the ‘less severe’ issues many kids face from their lives such that they could better thrive in school and letting the teacher focus on the standouts who remain, truly at risk kids who would also be able to receive targeted external to school assistance if we all did this right. If we are to expect teachers to do all that they can in this regard then we cannot absolve others from that same responsibility just because it is politically and logistically harder to make the improvements outside of schools that we now expect teachers to adjust their practice for. Everyone has a part to play in this, a responsibility to enable and position teachers to do the very best they can. We know there are no quick fixes for this, but it absolutely is doable. I think this idea must be part of the nation wide conversation we have to have on the topic.
jupitermom really speaks for me, too. I would like to quote you on my facebook page; may I?
Absolutely SSBluridge!
PS You do have a way to influence decisions on low SES. Vote. Call your congressperson. Tell your friends and family that low SES is a huge problem for the education of our nation’s children and we all need to vote and call. Write editorials for your local paper on how low SES impacts your classroom. Share with co-workers strategies that have personally worked for you to help kids who struggle. Reach out to families who struggle and let them know you are there to support and help them. And do that anyway you can. One person can make a difference. It’s not “either-or” here.
JupiterMom, So . . . it’s interesting that after you argue against not having an “us vs. them” stance, all the subjects in your last comment are “you.” How about “we?”
Ray- I’m not sure what your complaint is here. You are the one who stated : “I get your point about addressing poverty. I don’t have the ability to influence that nationwide. I do what I can in my classroom and, for many years and for many students, I’ve helped students help themselves to become more confident and competent writer.”
My post is addressing you personally about what you can do since you seem to be unaware or have forgotten about your power to influence national policy. Certainly though, we can all do this. You just seemed unaware (?) so I was sharing this information. I’m hoping it was simply a gentle reminder though. And sorry if you took it as anything other than that. I think we often forget our power to influence our government. And we shouldn’t forget about that- especially when 1 in every 5 children live below the poverty line in this country.
But, I’m very happy you recognize the need to say “we” and to stop with the “us” vs. “them speech. We have found common ground. 🙂 Let’s stay here for as long as we can.