There's a funny internal debate I've been having over the last few months. It goes something like this:
You know, this teaching thing seems a lot bigger than me. The challenges that my students face are one thing - but infinitely larger (seemingly) is the general disinterest in school. It often seems as though the students come from a culture that does not value knowledge and school. Because of this, it becomes nearly impossible to teach toward long-term success.
Let me explain.
My students, overall, do not seem to value school and education in the short term, and have trouble making a connection between short-term and long-term success. Certainly, they all say that they would like to be architects, atheletes, vetrinarians, etc, so their long-term goal is there. The problem lies in the connection between that eventual goal, and the work they do today.
Example: I have a student who wants to be a Vet. He is so far behind in math that as an eighth grader he still cannot add positive and negative numbers correctly (I believe this is a concept that is supposed to be introduced near the end of fourth grade). He cannot multiply two fractions together, and he certainly cannot function in math at all without a calculator. The worst part is, as soon as he hits something that he doesn't really know how to do, he shuts down. Completely. For him, the day is over. This student lacks the motivation to push on through academic challenges, yet does not understand that this inaction has an impact on his personal dreams.
Culturally, this is a common trend among my students, and it has taken me all year to try and break them of it (with scattered successes). One source of the problem, as I see it, is the popular culture that the students buy into. Watching BET and MTV, the students are not conveyed the value of hard work. Instead, they see the glamorized bling of Flavor Flave as he chooses between twelve different women to be his girl. Who cares about math?
Here's where my dilemna comes in:
I'm here, putting in every effort I can to try and help even things out (academically) for my kids - to try and give them a fair shot. Yet there's a sense that next year, they'll be back in the same boat. Very few of these students will retain all that I've worked to provide them. Very few of these students will continue on to find long-term success because of the fact that I helped push them to add -2 and 2. So what battle am I fighting?
Furthermore, the very reason I'm saying this - the very statement 'long-term success' - is rooted in my own middle-class values, values that (as I have discussed above) my students don't necessarily share.
My students (by and large) will not be the next Kenneth Lay. They will not be the next Condoleza Rice. They will not be the next Johnnie Chochran. Why? Because they don't value these positions! For the most part, my students don't care to be businessmen, congresswomen, or lawyers. They would love to be the next Lebron James, 50 Cent, or Flavor Flave. If you wanted to be these things, would you care about school?
Check out this article from the Times a while back.
Discuss.
Right now, I'm sitting at home watching a movie on FX waiting for noon to roll around. Then, I'll get somewhere to set up a plan for this week. I have three more Sundays after this one. Three more.
My plans for the beginning of summer go as follow:
June 7 - Last day for students
June 13 - Last day for teachers
June 14 - Tonsils get removed
June 16 - Flacid Lake Party
June 20 - First day of a week-long workshop for middle school math
June 24 - Last day of a week-long workshop for middle school math
June 25 - Most likely heading to Cleveland for a week or so
Other plans which don't have a timeline right now include:
- Visiting the Twin Cities
- A trip along the Outer Banks
- Jack (and possibly Mark) coming to visit
- Spending some time in Washington
- A quarter century celebration to blow minds and cream jeans