RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

Heather, I also cringe at the thought of teachers allowing their students to fail and hope that no teacher would ever COMMIT to giving up on a child. One day of frustration and throwing up your hands is one thing, but giving up on any student for the rest of the year is blasphemous. (I probably should have clarified in my own post that I never gave up on a child for the rest of the year.) It does happen though, and I want to encourage and remind each of us that we are no good alone; we are much more powerful and effective when working together for the common good of our students. Got a "problem" student? Sure we do. When was the last time we asked one of our collegues for suggestions or help? Hopefully as soon as we realized we couldn't "get through" to that student. We need to celebrate when one of our collegues can reach a student that we can't. It doesn't matter that we weren't able to reach them; what matters is that SOMEBODY was! Let us learn from Carter's musical example and Baker's Trilingualism techniques that we are a community of learners--and teachers--learning to be better!

Heather,
You are so right! As educators it is our job to never give up on a child. No matter how much they want to quit, we can't let them. It is not an option. Always keep in your mind the "golden rule"... do unto each child as you would have them do unto your own! I hope no one ever gives up on my son because he is active and would rather have a ball in his hand than a book. I can't imagine his teacher giving up on him. But we know it happens! We have to look to others for answers when we can't seem to reach a student alone. Step back and take a different approach. Maybe it just means waking up from a comfort zone & getting back in the game.

In my opinion, giving up is not an option we can afford to choose. If one strategy doesn't work, it behooves us to get creative and try another one until we find one that works. When all else fails, we need to collaborate with fellow teachers before we get to the "throw our hands up" stage. Allowing a child to flounder is not a measure of the child's failure; it falls to the teachers discredit.

I love all of the comments, I will admit this year has been my toughest, two EC students, four "troubled" students. We had a rough year but I am too stubborn to give up. If I give up on them that means I gave up on the profession I chose. These children all have something that interests them or something they want to escape from, it is our job to guide them to a safe place they feel cared about. In the past I have brought in my china and crystal to have lunch family style in the cafeteria. They had to use manners, from sitting down, ladies first to asking for someone to pass the food. Again simple language, sitting at an elegant table setting changes them. We rehearsed how to seat a lady, please, thank you, and what is and is not appropriate as dinner converstion. Yes code switching is still alive, the next few days they talked about the nice lunch, in thier home English. Something so little, that you trust them with your private material things, moves your relationship a long way to trust. I was blessed that one of my teachers saw I had value and demanded my best, even after my prior siblings reeked havoc in the school. We never know what our students will be in the future, we must push for their best. We are all connected, support them in school or the consequences of no education.

As you stated “People need to learn the “academic” English so they can be successful in the public eye, and then “professional” English so that they can be successful in their chosen profession.” I definitely agree with you. As I read this statement by you it made me come to the realization that teachers need to explain, “code switching” and its importance. Our students must know the importance of how to demonstrate themselves and their abilities while being interviewed. They also need to realize that how they may talk to their friends is not how they should talk to their parents and their elders. I feel that if children and even adults are aware of the situations then they will try to learn everything that they need to know in order to be successful. On the other hand if they are not told then they are not aware of what that they could be setting themselves up for failure in the professional word.

Misty Mistretta

So right, Heather. How can someone come out of school themselves, graduate from an institution of higher learning, be in close contact with small children and still treat them so disfunctionally? You would think that the other teacher, or the administrator, or the researcher would take this person aside and give them what-for! Not only did they give the little girl permission to fail but look at the message they allowed to be conveyed to the other students in the room. They now also ignore the child in question. How sad. This appears to be a failure of more than just one educator in this situation. Are we so "civilized" that we will not stand up for students placed in this scenario? I raise this question not to you personally but to us all for the students in our own schools. Do we pay enough attention and act appropriately? It makes me wonder.

I agree that giving up on a child is not something a real teacher would, or shoud, ever do. However, I get stuck on what it means to fail? Does it mean that no child will ever fail a class if teachers don't give them permission to fail. I teach high school, and there are students who do not have the ability to pass higher level math class EOC's. They may fail a class or an EOC, but the teacher worked with them throughout the year and alowed them to learn. Isn't learning more valuable than the artificail standard set up by dpi? I don't think Ladson-Billings article makes this clear. I am left unsure what 'failing' means to her. But, I do know that teachers should exhaust their resources in order give a student tools to succeed personally, realizing that success will be different for every student.

I’m going to make myself some notes about what grade everyone teachers. I have a theory that we’re going to see lots of congruent thought within grade levels and varying thoughts between them. I agree with all of you ladies that allowing students to fail is a sign of us falling short as teachers. However, I would ask, when is it ever enough? I work a ridiculous amount of hours and still never get it all done.

This past year I had 76 very fabulous students. How, may I ask, am I to serve each of them individually when I have 30 students in one class? I frequently consult with colleagues, call guardians, and try every odd thing you can think of to get my students to buy-in to learning. For some of my students, one year of pushing and academic harassment from me isn’t enough. They resist and resist until around April when they may begin to start working. At that point, my job is to start weaning them off of seventh grade encouragement and get them ready for eighth grade reality. I think we need to look beyond individual teachers and look to the setup and structure of our schools. We are stacking the odds against all children, but especially against those whose parents may not be available to advocate for teaching that goes beyond adequate.

I say Baker is right in the thinking that trust and relationships are the place to start. I may not be able to differentiate for every single student in my ESL inclusion class of 27, but I can dig out an old copy of Charlotte’s Web and hype it up to the point that every single young lady working to acquire English is fighting over it. I may not be able buy books that will challenge upper level students, but I can fill up Harris Teeter bags full of books from the library and push them to research until they want to scream.

I guess my point is that nothing is ever enough. However, it is not our fault that we are members of a flawed society and educational system. We do what we can with what we have...and then some. But I refuse to be called a failure when all of my love & hat tricks aren’t enough to combat years of hurt and distress. We are sculptors. We may be able to mold a masterpiece, or we may simply be able to being to chip away years of corrosion. At least we’re trying.

You make some great points. It is important for students to know when to use the appropriate language. Role playing is a great way to show students how to act in different situations. I also agree that it is our job to try everything that we can think of to make students succeed. I stayed after school to tutor 8 students this school year to make sure that my students got a little extra motivation. Some students just need that individual attention. I am willing to do all that I can to help my students and I think all teachers should do their best to not let their students just slide by.

I agree that we really need to teach our children how to code switch. I had never really thought about there being so many different forms of English either. I want to say AMEN to Ruth's comments; I couldn't agree more. We do live in a flawed society and we do have a flawed educational system, but we as humans are flawed beings so we will never live in a perfect society. I keep looking for the real Pleasantville but I have not found it yet. You are so right, we just have to do the best we can with what we have and be okay with that. I'm never going to be able to "fix" all the problems my kids come with. I can't correct as Ruth said years of hurt and distress and bad parenting, but I can make a little difference. I can look at where my kids were when they came to me and where they are when they leave and know that I helped make their life a little better in a small way. Being a kindergarten teacher, I have all sorts of kids with lots of issues especially at the beginning of the year. Some have never been away from Mom so I literally have to peel and remove them the first few days or weeks, and they cry and scream and meanwhile the other 19 are sitting in there looking at you with horror on their faces. We each in our own classes and own grades have unique obstacles to overcome. True, mine are very different than a high school teacher's would be. But no matter what grade or subject you may teach, your students will not care about anything you have to say unless they truly believe you care about them as a person and respect and love them. That is the key. I had one particular little boy this past year that I can honestly say almost was the death of me. He drove me absolutely bananas and I have never been so excited to see a year come to an end. Then on the last day, he comes up to me and hugs me and tells me how much he will miss me!!! I could have fallen over, I was so shocked. I felt like all I'd done was yell at him all year, and he was going to miss that? Even through the constant corrections though, I never gave up with him and I fought to the end to try to help him learn. I guess somehow he knew that.

We are only human, us teachers, and all we can do is our best. We do have lives and families and we can't live at school, but we should never ever write a student off and we should give our very best that we can to each and every one!

Lorie Hedrick