Reading Gorski’s article I found myself at first reflecting and approaching his argument as I usually do reading about the troubles of the achievement gap and the challenges that students face. My heart breaks thinking that some students have so many outside factors weighing on them at such a young age, and that some of these “barriers” as Gorski calls them not only limit their success in the classroom but in turn limit their mobility post high school.
I thought back to FNED 346 my freshman year of college when these issues first really crossed my mind. I grew up in a community of mainly white- middle class families. My friends and I would often complain about our classwork interfering with our sports, social lives or other extra-curricular activities. I remember sitting in FNED learning about some of the actual barriers students today face such as poverty, racial discrimination and abuse. I soon realized that these barriers would also become part of my life and be in my mind setting out to be a teacher. Although, I may not ever have to face (hopefully) some of these challenges students enter the classroom with, it is my job as an educator to help them achieve success both inside and outside the school despite these barriers. Even though as an educator one cannot fix a students economic situation or home life, one can work to provide them every tool necessary for success in the classroom.
I also really enjoyed how at the end of Gorski’s article he included those reflective questions. The first question really stuck with me the most, “Am I helping students develop a language that problematises deficit framings?”. I stuck with me because it seems like such a simple thing to do even though it takes a lot of conscious effort. By just changing the way one speak to students and word things like his example of “drop out” versus “push out” the teacher can create a climate of both acknowledging the unfairness of the current barriers students face while also placing students in a more positive mindset about themselves.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that it is important for us to consider these issues that we might never have to actually deal with in order to better understand the lives of students who face them everyday. We really have to work hard and use our imaginations to put ourselves in the shoes of others in order to better understand where they are coming from. Its short-sighted of many educators to urge students to succeed without themselves considering what it would be like if these awful barriers became "part of [their] life."
ReplyDeleteI like the example you gave from your own experience as a student. I had a similar experience, where myself and my friends would complain endlessly about how it "wasn't fair" that we all had sports practices and dance lessons for hours each night and then hours of homework on top of it. Its tough to realize at the time, but looking back its so obvious that these activities are not required of us and are just done for fun. For students in poverty, watching their siblings or taking on an after school job or two are not optional at all. They have to do these things, and still make time for school work.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you shared an experience out in the field to support your response. I can too relate to your experience as I grew up in a predominantly white community. Fned also opened up my mind to the reality of poverty and economic barriers. Push out is really a more accurate portrayal than drop out too because it's about unfairness of barriers often times.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out the phrase "drop out" versus "pushes out" because the statistics of drop out are way too high to just be a coincidence especially in low income neighborhoods. I think that most students are pushed out because they are not being taught or the teachers they have do not enjoy teaching.
ReplyDelete