wow! there is so much knowledge in this chapter. there seemed to be an unlying feeling of acceptance, faithfulness and love...along with dialogue. there were a few quotes from this chapter that i found profound. "the emotional shading that enables the child's individuality"..."from his mother, from others who are close to him." "the child receives all initial determinations of himself and of his body from his mother's lips and from the lips of those who are close to him." if a child's identity and feelings about him/herself come from his/her family, then we must accept the child as well as the child's family because they are one. it doesnt seem as if they can be separated and not accepting a child's whole home life will disable the child. this thought leads me to the next quote..."Particularly as children leave the intimacy of home and family, the constitution of identity from other subject locations can be limiting or damaging." wow!
then on page 151 i found myself talking to the text in agreement when i read, "but this kind of action is more problematic if teachers cannot see the richness of children's situated histories and as a result reduce those complex histories to labels that account for children's academic failures." i had a black, fatherless, poor SES, BED, speech delayed, DD, child this year in kindergarten...i was told that he would never make it in my room. he did! despite the labels this precious child came to me with, he made it. i believe in my heart that if his next teachers choose not to look at his given labels, he can shed them. he is bright and intellegent. what this child needed was to be accepted. he wanted friends! he needed love and patience and understanding and faithfulness from his teachers.
lastly, i underlined these two sentences from page 152. "rather, change also has to entail a moral shift, a willingness to open oneself up to the possibility of seeing those who differ from us. this is very hard work, but work that lies at the heart of teaching." i believe that when one is faithful to the teaching profession and to children a child can move mountains.
donna byrd-wyatt
Comments (6)
Hi Donna,
I too found the information regarding a child and its early relationships to be very interesting. How amazing to think that even before a child can speak, his identity is already being shaped by those who are around him. I loved the quote, “The words of a loving human are the first and most authoritative words about him; they are the words that for the first time determine his personality from outside, the words that come to meet his indistinct inner sensation of himself, giving it a form and a name which, for the first time, he finds himself and becomes aware of himself as a something.” This quote truly impressed upon me the importance of a parent’s relationship with his child. I am not a parent yet; however, I will never forget the powerfulness found in the words of this quote. As a teacher we need to always remember that a child’s values and beliefs are shaped by his parents. And to be honest, isn’t that the way it should be.
Kelly Mabe
Posted by Kelly Mabe | June 21, 2007 8:44 AM
Posted on June 21, 2007 08:44
Donna,
I like how you integrated, very elegantly, the quotes from chapter 6 into your writing. We have to accept the whole child, with his/her family. If we do not, the child does not feel accepted as a whole. This reminds me of when I was in the 7th grade. My little sister, Melody, and I bickered and quarreled constantly, but when a neighbor girl was picking on my sister, I immediately was by her side, defending her and ensuring her safety. This is exactly how the children we teach act. They love their mama and daddy and we had better love them, too.
Labels—let’s shed them! Two years ago, I had a child enter my classroom with many labels. He was ADD, problematic, disruptive, talkative, rude, etc.---That’s what the other teachers told me. They shook their heads when they heard that I had “him”. Oh… it sounded like I had caught the plague by having him placed in my classroom. I chose not to listen to all of the negativity. I decided to love this child, his family, and his experiences. He succeeded! The next year, his labels were dropped. When I mentioned to his 3rd grade teacher--where he had been at the beginning of 2nd grade, she could not believe it. This was not what she had seen. I just smiled… and thought…I succeeded. I made a difference.
Written by
Heather Holland
Posted by Heather Holland | June 22, 2007 10:41 AM
Posted on June 22, 2007 10:41
Donna,
Your comments on this chapter are so true. Some children today just need to be given a chance. They come to us with so many labels and stories of past mistakes that often times they are judged before they even walk in our doors. Teachers today need to form their own opinions about their children and stop the "lounge" talk that can occur about students. Some of these problematic children just need to feel accepted for who they are and what they are. Every child should not have to conform to the same set of guidelines. This chapter was very enlightning
Beth Rigsbee
Posted by Beth Rigsbee | June 22, 2007 10:59 AM
Posted on June 22, 2007 10:59
Donna,
As I read your post, I got chills and the hairs on my arms stood straight up in the air. It is awesome that you took this child and believed in him inspite of the labels, the skin that he spoke, and his situated histories. We need more teachers like you. You have opened your heart and you are faithful to the teaching profession and the students that walk in your door every year. I would like to THANK YOU for believing in him, your patience, understanding, and giving him the love that was required for him to be successful in school.
It would be my PLEASURE if I EVER had the OPPORTUNITY to meet you one day.
Posted by Shirley Mathis | June 22, 2007 7:34 PM
Posted on June 22, 2007 19:34
Donna,
In past years, I have received children in my class who were known as difficult students (sometimes troublemakers) in their kindergarten and first grade classes. At the beginning of each school year before the first student day, teachers tend to go around from classroom to classroom to find out what new class their students from the previous year end up in. Each year, I hear warnings about one or two children that sometimes cools my enthusiasm for the upcoming school year. I'm sorry to say that most of the warnings ended up becoming self-fulfilling prophecies as the children lived up to their negative reputations in my classroom. Perhaps if I had taken the time to understand who these children really were beyond the negative image they lived out at school, I could have developed a more positive teacher-student relationship with them. There is nothing I can do to change the past. However, from now on I can learn how to respond to potential difficult students with discernment, which hopefully will motivate them to be good citizens and do their best work.
Vickie Howell
Posted by Vickie Howell | June 22, 2007 11:21 PM
Posted on June 22, 2007 23:21
I don't know that I completely agree with accepting the child and their family as one because there are some families who I can not connect with and seem not to care about their child’s work but their child cares and loves school and wants to do well. I think I disagree with Hicks there because I believe the child no matter what the background makes him into what it is they want to be no matter what obstacle stands in the way. Now granted I do see that if a child grows up with a mother as a hair dresser then the daughter might be likely to do that as well because it is what she knows is safe. However, ultimately I tend to lean to the side of the child choose their own destiny.
Posted by Kristen Billings | June 22, 2007 11:31 PM
Posted on June 22, 2007 23:31