Reading Jake's story had me questioning fairness in education. He was definitely a child who had experiences with literacy prior to beginning school. His mother and "mom mom" had read to him. Both ladies and Jake's father read at home- although for different purposes. It appears that his early childhood experiences supported academic success. However, he never seemed to make the connection between his world and school. “Like other things in his family life, reading had to make good sense to be something of value to Jake.” (Hicks 120)
Jake's lack of interest reminds me of so many of my students. How many students have entered our classrooms feeling that education was pointless? They just cannot see how education fulfills a purpose for them. I believe Jake already had begun to develop a sense of self before he started kindergarten. With his father being a strong male role model, Jake seemed to mimic much of his father's interests and activities. From what I gathered, his father had the same attitude towards life. For instance, he expected Jake to take over the family business one day.
Eight years ago, I taught a student very similar to Jake. “Davy” showed little interest in school. From the beginning, it was evident that he had built up a wall. By fourth grade, he already had decided that he wanted to own a logging business like his grandfather so he planned to drop out of school. I really tried to encourage Davy to consider pursuing a business degree for the purpose of being able to manage his future business. Because his grandfather had been able to run a logging business with little education, he believed he could do the same. Unfortunately, his mother offered little support. During a meeting with her and the EC teacher, I had expressed my concern that Davy lacked motivation and had an indifferent attitude toward education. To this day, I can still remember her exact words- “He’s always been that way.” It’s very difficult to motivate a child when his parents apparently have given up on him. Although, I recently heard that Davy had become a father in what would have been his junior year of high school, I still have faith that Davy will persevere in life. I just wish there was a program in high school that appealed to students like Davy.
In the educational world, it is difficult to bridge the gap for students like Jake and Davy. However, we must make an effort to make those real-world connections. It is not simply a matter of ideas about “‘what works’ for working-class children.” Instead, it is more about “this community, this neighborhood, this family.” (Hicks 154) More personal connections must be made; forming stereotypes and generalizations will not solve the problem. “Teaching can be reductively construed as remediation, as opposed to moral action that creatively responds to the particulars of situated histories.” What a powerful statement! We must not assume that students have a learning deficit. We must first consider who they are and what they are bringing to the classroom.
Holly Lawson
Comments (4)
Isn't it sad when parents are less motivated than the students. If only the parents realized what an impact they have on the succuss of their children. If we could only make them understand that children need to motivated and encouraged to do their best. Sometimes it seems that the teachers are making all the changes and trying to reach out to the students, but the parents just don't "get it". I hate to say it, but it's just a cycle. Children that are raised this way will raise their children the same way. Therefore, bridging the gap takes help from both home and school and with some parents that is very difficult because they don't know there is a gap to bridge.
Posted by Karin Scott | June 29, 2011 3:07 PM
Posted on June 29, 2011 15:07
Holly, I too like you teach in the same environment. No matter how exciting I can make a book or how interactive I make the reading some students just never see the connection of how important it is to their future. Even when brakethroughs begin to happen and students begin to develop a love for reading the discourses between home and school are still there. Unlike Jake many of my students have avid readers at home. More often than not it is hard to break down what has already been set in place at home.
Posted by Kara S | June 29, 2011 5:54 PM
Posted on June 29, 2011 17:54
Holly-
Sadly I believe we have all had our fair share of Jake’s in class. It is unfortunate the even those children who have what seems to be a strong support system at home tend to struggle due to the opposition of ideals being supported in the home discourse. One of the toughest aspects of our job is dealing with parents. However it is also one of the most important parts as well, without communication and cooperation between school and home student success is made even more difficult to achieve. I can recall many challenging conversations this past year with parents, who although they may not have agreed completely with what they were hearing, they did in fact hear/listen to what I was saying. It has been my experience that during their child’s kindergarten year is not the first time they have heard much of the information and it won’t be the last either. But often by 2nd or 3rd grade it starts to sink in and after hearing the same thing over and over from several different individuals in the profession they actually start to listen and have a better understanding of the issues their child is facing in school.
Posted by Ruth Ann Timmons | June 29, 2011 11:36 PM
Posted on June 29, 2011 23:36
Candy Kee
Hey Holly,
I had a very similar experience with a student of mine. His name is Casey. He comes from a family of uneducated parents that value hard work and little education. Casey was in my Title 1 reading classes in elementary school and cute as a button. He did not enjoy reading so much although we all tried to entice him. After he left Elementary school I still saw him from time to time. We reconnected when I took a job at his highschool In Exceptional Children. He was in my curriculum support classes for 3 years. by the eleventh grade he had lest than half of the credits he needed to graduate. He failed time and time again to do homework. I finally put more effort into him and sat with him in curriculum class and helped him along. Finally he began to collect credits. all he wanted to do in class was look up information and cost for a tractor trailor truck. He wanted to launch his own hauling business. He would read the standards manual for driving one and finally got his license. He worked part time for a company driving at night. This also cut into his academics. He would fall asleep standing up in class. The teachers continually told him to do his work and graduate and get a real job. This made me angry. His goal was to have a real job and end result he would be making more money than the teachers. We finally got him through to graduation when he was 20 years old. He is still dreaming of owning a truck one day. He has goals even if they were not the goals the teachers wanted him to accomplish.
Posted by candace kee | June 30, 2011 10:16 AM
Posted on June 30, 2011 10:16