Prompt #2 (Question #2)

Throughout my service learning experience I have found myself frequently thinking back to my elementary school experience and relating mine to the children in which I have tutored, interacted with, and observed within my sixteen visits. When I was a fourth grader I was always very quiet and would never question or doubt a teachers requests. Whenever I would get yelled at for not doing homework or speaking to a classmate during work time I would always get very upset and be afraid of it happening again. One of the things that have stood out to me in the classroom is the children’s passiveness to a teacher scolding them. As I was tutoring one of my students one afternoon, my attention was abruptly turned to a teacher completely stopping her lesson by raising her voice and yelling at a student for speaking to another classmate. The student being yelled at stopped speaking but seemed somewhat unbothered by the incident and would most likely repeat the behavior at some other point throughout the day. My comparison between myself as a student and some of the chatty students which I have observed, have made me realize that as I teacher I must be aware of the impact of what they say and while I may say the same thing to two separate students, its effect on them individually may be completely different. I think teachers should be aware of children’s sensitivity and should also recognize when to be stricter and sterner for students who are not accustomed to being yelled at.

The info works data for the school in which I tutor at states that the student body consists of 35% whites, 1% Native American, 31% Hispanic, and 4% Asian, and 29% African American. I think that it is great that this school is so diverse and therefore exposes students to people of different backgrounds. Due to the high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics I was shocked to find out that no students were recipients of ESL or bilingual education services. I highly doubt that out of all the students there is not one individual who is having trouble speaking English as a second language or difficulties balancing the use of two separate languages. This makes me wonder if this school offers effective language services or if the students struggles are going unnoticed and being disregarded. Bilingual students have an automatic academic setback due to the fact that they will be forced to speak English during school hours but while at home they are surrounded by the use of a completely different language and are not able to be exposed to as much English as do students whose families only speak English. It is highly important for teachers to be aware of this and to not label a student as being lazy just because they are behind. Teachers must be highly aware of the sociocultural characteristics that distinguish the students, student’s families, and communities from each other.

Another shocking statistic that I noticed was that 65% of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunches. This means that the majority of student’s family’s financial situations are very poor and that parents most likely have to be working two or more jobs. A student’s financial situation reflects the community in which they live in and the amount of violence that they are exposed to. Imagine a child who grows up in a household that has two working parents who may have to work more than one job in order to keep themselves financially stable. This child will most likely take the bus to school, not have a sufficient amount of time having parents help them with homework/read to them, and not be monitored in regards to the type of music they listen to or the type of television they watch. As I was tutoring a fourth grade boy I was stunned to hear him singing a song by Lil Wayne who is a popular rap artists amongst teens. The particular song that he was singing and seemed to know word by word was highly explicit and had a main focus on sex. Also, while I was working with my two students together they began a discussion on who was “hooking up” with who that was far beyond the level that fourth graders should be talking about. This immediately concerned me on what these children were being exposed to so early on in life and whether the parents are ignoring these vital warning signs or are not around there children enough to notice them. Both these students were Hispanic and could most likely have parents who are not around a lot due to their jobs. When a parent comes home from working all day the first thing they are going to do is most likely not help their child with homework or correct them if they swear or say inappropriate things since they may be too tired or worn out to bother. Also, children who are always yelled at by their parents may be more submissive and comfortable with being yelled at by a teacher since it happens to them all the time. While a student whose parents are calmer and have the patience the deal with a child’s misbehavior in a calmer way may be shocked and discomforted when a teacher speaks to them so sternly.

The children bring in a cultural capital that is very diverse yet share similarities as well. Many students are capable of speaking Spanish while learning English while others have English as their primary language. The way they speak of their home lives varies and what they eat for lunch varies from student to student. These students pick up on each other’s differences through discussions that will arise involving culture, traditions, and views. In order to strengthen our society we must allow students of different races to have free time for discussions and to try to expose students to others people of different races as much as possible so that they do not become afraid or resilient towards people who are not like them and will therefore make a step towards decreasing racism in future generations. Teachers must realize that not all students learn the same and that classroom time should consist of various instructions to techniques such as lecturing, group activities, discussions, projects, and activities that require an active mind so that all students can benefit and learn instead of just a group of students who learn best from listening. The article titled, “The Silenced Dialogue” by Lisa Delpit, supports the fact that a group of students may interpret an instruction or correction to be extremely mean and unnecessary while other students need that stern command in order to put them In line. This is why it is so crucial for teachers to be aware of the sociocultural distinctiveness of her classroom while using instruction for his or her students.