RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Tracy,
I feel that you are right about parents needing to show value in school. This year, more than once, I have had conferences in school with parents whose children were reading way below grade level. Their attitudes were "Well we don't like reading either. He/She gets it honest". At that point there was not much left to say. One of these children I really wanted to retain, because I thought another year of reading at her instructional level (the next year's teachers do not believe in this) would truly benifit her. Her parents would not have any part of it. I believe that if her parents really worked with her that she could catch up. But if her family life persists in the same manner, her options in later life will be extremely limited. Parents have such an influence over our attitudes. I don't think that I realized that until I became a parent. I am glad for your son that he has made good choices even though he did not enjoy school. I see teens every year give up on school because they do not like it. I feel that high school teachers have difficult jobs. By the time most students get at this level, they are already set in their attitudes toward school, good or bad. The world needs all kinds of workers- professionals, teachers, soldiers, and skilled laborers. Whose to say that oneis better than the other? You're right each person should be able to choose their right path, hopeful with parental support.
Amy Reep
PS- My husband is a Marine Reserve as well. He has been in 16 years. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do in life until after boot camp. The Marines opened his eyes to a life unknown to him. I am thankful for alternative choices for students. We don't all fit the college mold.

Tracy, I agree that we shouldn't push our children to do one thing or another. In fact many times that backfires and they end up rebelling against whatever we wanted them to become whether it was what they truly wanted to do or not. I believe we should put all the options out there for our students and our own kids trying hard not to persuade one way or the other. Tney are responsible for their choices and should be given that oportunity whether we agree or not. I always say that someone has to work at the working class jobs. There are folks who love that and that's what helps make the world go round.

Tracy,
I agree that college is not for everyone! What is sad today is that is what our high schools are pushing our young folks to do. To graduate now, they have to have 4 maths (which used to be only for college track students.) I am worried that many of my EC students will not get a high school diploma because they cannot pass the new, stricter graduation guidelines. Hopefully, this will change, as these policies often do in public eduction. (Let's not forget about that senior project that my daughter had to start, but not finish because the rules changed on her midstream.) Valuing the different choices that students want to make has been lost to the new policies. I do think as educators, we make efforts to reach our children. I hear it all of blogs and comments. I am proud to be among teachers who value students and continue to reach and love kids.
Susan Hines

Kids love to do hands on activities. It is only fair that teachers provide some hands on activities in their classroom. I know it is hard to incorporate a lot of hands on lessons with the type of curriculum we are responsible in teaching but you can cover both. I try to do a few hands on mathematics activities each week. I can’t use them for all of my math lessons but I do for some. It works just as well for Science and Social Studies now writing and reading are a little tougher to turn into hands on, but it could be done.

You are correct. Jake did seem talented and gifted in some areas. If he wasn’t interested, then forget it. That is why I think writer’s workshop worked so well for him. It enabled him to write about the things he enjoyed the most. I was surprised to see him not enjoy the Science journal activities that his teacher had them do. I would have thought that he would have enjoyed it for two reasons. First, it was a journal activity so it was something that he could do that wasn’t as structured and stringent as other activities. Second, it was all about Science. It seemed as active as he was that he would love science for it engages students in so many physical activities, like experiments.

His parents did seem a bit loose in their parenting. They almost appeared inactive with parenting. I was appalled at the ball incident, where they were allowing their own children to get hurt on their own to teach them a lesson instead of just talking to them and warning them about getting hurt while playing baseball. If they would have been more active as parents and supportive in Jake’s life then I wonder how much further Jake would have gotten in his academics. If his parents just would have shown interest and support in some of the things he was learning in school I wonder if his perspective would have been different about his academics. Thus he could have performed better in school.

It would be quite interesting to know what happens to Laurie and Jake in 10-20 years. I would love to read up on that. They both seemed so disinterested in school. I just wonder how that affected them in their college years. Did they go on to college or not? I would have loved to have found out that they are both very successful today.

I also agree with you when you discuss Jake's parents and how they had this attitude of letting him learn from his own mistakes. It seemed as though his parents would help him a little bit more especially at such a young age when he did not know any better. I also think his parents should have been more of an encourager. It seemed as though his mother and his grandmother thought reading was an important part of his and his sister's lives, but I agree with you when you said they didn't exactly "plant the seed". Instead they just read to him a lot and hoped he would pick it up on his own. However, it did not come easily to him because he did not see reading as important. A perfect opportunity for Jake's father would have been while Jake was working along side of him he could have explained that if he wanted to take over the business when he was older it is important to get a good education and explain how important it is to learn to read!

Katy Dellinger

Tracy,
I agree. You can tell what a student's parents' attitude toward education is by the attitude of the child. More times than not, children will value what their parents value. It is so sad to have a conference with a parent who does not value education and who does not want more for their child. It's also hard to explain to a child why education is important when the child's parent doesn't value it.
I would also be interested in seeing what Laurie and Jake decide to do in the future.
Marsha Warren