Current Issues and the Importance of Support for our Students

As you all know, some very important human rights issues have been in the media lately involving Ferguson and the New York City incidents where white cops failed to be indicted in the deaths of two unarmed black men.

So, to keep my focus solely on the theme of education, one thing that has been completely frustrating to me in the past few weeks is how little we are educating our students about these incidents. Specifically for me, as a University student, I have watched my professors' dance around the subject. I understand that it would lead to a very heated discussion, with viewpoints on both sides of the argument, but I sat through a politics class focused on civil rights without once mentioning the lack of civil rights in the country today. I had a professor describe a history book as being "about the racism that used to occur back in the day in our country". To me, I see all of these teachable moments where we could have discussed why the jury made their decision, how that decision was able to stand, what politics are involved, and the fact that racism is extremely existent in our society today. If I am feeling frustrated about these issues in my schooling, I can only imagine how school aged children are feeling.

Now, I understand that delving so deep into these issues in an Elementary or Middle School classroom is probably not the most smart thing to do, but I do know that there are many students who are afraid right now and don't understand what is going on. This needs to be treated as an important issue in schools right now and educators need to provide support for their students.

How? Well, a group of Middle School teachers and staff in Ferguson decided to help their students through writing. I think this was a brilliant idea, our students of every race and gender need to be able to express their feelings about what is going on in the world around them. They are not blind, they see the news, they hear their families and the people on the street. As educators, it is our job to be there for our students, to listen to them and provide support. As human beings, it is our job to try to change the circumstances that many of our black and minority students and fellow human beings have to face every single day.

Stereotyping Students-The Single Story

For many city kids, the single story becomes the defining story. Based on stereotypes created by society, city kids are given a single story of a lack of food, shelter, family, and education. They are thugs, gang members…they will never succeed in life. We see and hear it every day. But are these stereotypes true and how exactly are they affecting our students?

In 1995, Steele and Aronson researched what they termed the stereotype threat through four experiments. In the first experiment, African American and White students were given an exam. One group was told that the results of this exam would indicate their intellectual abilities (the stereotype threat condition). The control group, or non stereotype threat conditioned group, were told that the exam was just a problem solving exercise. The African Americans in the stereotype threat condition group performed less well than the White students, but in the non-threatened group, the results where about the same. Experiment two was under the same conditions but focused on the fact that African Americans in the stereotype threatened group answered less questions and answered more questions incorrectly than their White counterparts. In experiment three, African American and White students performed a task either under the stereotype threat condition or not. The results were as follows,
African-American participants performed more poorly. In addition, they showed heightened awareness of their racial identity (by completing word fragments related to their ethnicity), more doubts about their ability (by completing word fragments related to low ability), a greater likelihood to invoke a priori excuses for poor performance (i.e., self-handicapping), a tendency to avoid racial-stereotypic preferences, and a lower likelihood of reporting their race compared with students in the low-threat condition.
Finally, in experiment four, Students were given exams and half of them were asked what racial/ethnic group they belong to right before they took the exam. African Americans who were asked about their racial identity had poor performance compared to those who were not asked about their racial identity. The results of these experiments provided evidence that when stereotypes suggesting poor performance are salient, they can disrupt student performance, increase self doubt, and cause students to disidentify with their ethnic groups.  

In schools today, students are faced with a wider variety of stereotypes than ones solely based on race, but the evidence provided by the research above and research that followed shows that, whatever the stereotype may be, there are negative consequences for students. In other words, the more students hear stereotypes about themselves, the more they are going to believe it. In fact, recent reports show that American schools today are still discriminate against children when it comes to race and disability. So, as educators, what can we do to eliminate the stereotype threat from our classrooms?

For starters, it is important to provide students with texts that move against the grain of the "single story". As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie states in her TED talk above, "stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity" (Adichie, 17:40-17:55). Here are just a few sample texts that I have personally read or viewed that provide a sense of hope and power against the stereotypes surrounding our society:

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles is a story about two high school students who work together to fight their single stories. Alex belongs to a gang and is stifled by the single story that defines him as a criminal that will never succeed in life, if he even lives past 18 anyways. Brittany goes to the same high school and is considered the perfect girl. Little does anybody know, she is struggling with life at home and just wants to be normal. When they are placed together as Chemistry partners, Brittany and Alex form a bond and, together, they fight against the stereotypes that are defining their lives.

Kendra by Coe Booth is another story that defines the stereotypes society places upon young teenage girls. Because Kendra's mother had her when she was fourteen, Kendra is expected to follow the same path. Her grandmother tries to keep Kendra out of trouble, but as Kendra graduates high school and begins dating, it is up to Kendra to break the single story of her life and choose the right path to follow.

 Can't Get There from Here by Todd Strasser is a story about a group of homeless teenagers and their struggles to survive on the street. The main character of the story, Maybe, fights against the stereotypes that are keeping her on the streets and helps keep her friends alive.

Freedom Writers is a collection of essays written by actual students of Erin Gruwell. These essays tell the stories of city kids, their struggles, their dreams, and how they fight to reach those dreams. All of the writers graduated from high school and went on to college despite the stereotypes that could have held them back.

Push by Sapphire and the movie that was based off of the book, Precious, tell the story of a young high school girl who goes to an alternative school to try to graduate. She is the mother of one child and is pregnant with her second. She faces some horrible living conditions, but with the help of her teacher and friends, she fights against her single story to create a better life for herself and her children.






These are just a few examples of fiction and non fiction stories that you can share with students to encourage them to fight against stereotypes. Along with these texts, it is extremely important that teachers educate their children about stereotypes and the threat they have on every student in the building.

Not only do the students need to be educated on the threat of stereotyping, but educators themselves need to strive to learn and understand exactly how stereotyping affects their students and how they may carry these stereotypes as well. Gregory Michie asked teachers of color what advice they would give to white teachers. Among this advice, the most important is to "be honest about gaps of knowledge and commit to learning more" (Michie, 44). In order for teachers, especially white teachers, to successfully educate their students, they must make a conscious effort to learn about each students' culture and beliefs. In a sense, teachers must be willing to become students of their students. Educators need to be willing to admit that they are ignorant about many of their students' experiences and they must also be willing to ask students to help them understand. Being honest about the gaps of knowledge or experience you have and being willing to openly learn from your students is the only way to ensure that, as an educator, you are not placing your students into the single story defined by society and the stereotypes you may carry.  

Overall, stereotyping any child and placing them into a single story can be devastating. The more a child hears that he or she will not succeed because of their race, sexual orientation, economic standing, or life choices, the more that child is going to believe this. Yet, with the help of adults, especially educators who are open and understanding, each child can break down the stereotypes created about their culture and lives. Nobody fits into a single story and it is time for society as a whole to educate each other in the truth behind each individual life. It is time to throw away the stereotypes we carry around today about our students and give the children the tools and hope that is needed for them to create their own stories, stories of success instead of violence and failure. When stereotypes and single stories are challenged, a chance for a better life is presented to any kid who wishes to reach out and grab it. 



For more information on the stereotype threat and to read more on the study mentioned above, click here!
Here is an awesome blog that addresses issues of race, class, gender, and LCBTQIA.

And what about that Michie book I quoted? Well here is the information you need to find it, I recommend any future educator to read it!

Michie, Gregory. We Don’t Need Another Hero. New York: Teachers College Press, 2012. Print.

Students' Personal Struggles

 In American education today, some of the biggest issues effecting student success is occurring outside the classroom, even outside the school walls. Every day and night, our students face violence, rape, poverty, inequality and so much more. Yet they are expected to walk into the classroom every day, sit down, and just learn. Just learn? As if learning comes freely, as if the growl in your hungry stomach, the wonder about where you are going to sleep tonight will not affect your learning. Now, don't get me wrong, not every single student faces issues of this severity, but the education system today is providing no support for those who do, despite the evidence that these students will not succeed without the support of those around them.

In teacher training you will hear the words Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs chanted at you year after year.  Students cannot succeed if they are lacking in the most fundamental needs; food, shelter, safety, love, just to name a few. Okay, we got it. Yet year after year as the words Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is being chanted at me, not once have I been educated on how to combat the issues students are facing outside of the classroom. I am taught how to identify students who are struggling or "at risk" but what is the next step?

The key word here…support. And not just support from one teacher or adult who decides they care, support from an entire network of teachers and adults who care. It takes a village. In the documentary titled 180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School, the teachers, administration, and school councilors create a network of support for the students in their school. This support, the "I'm here for you and I will do whatever I can to help you" factor gave students the chance to talk about what is going on in their lives and gain the support they need to change their circumstances. But we cannot do it on our own, with hundreds of students moving through our classrooms every year, we are not going to be able to be there for every single one on our own. It takes the entire school and community to make a difference, including parents, other students, and other community members who are empowered to make a difference in youth lives.

So, back to the Maslow stuff here, once we identify what needs our students are not getting, we need to actually do something about it. Know the support networks within your community. Know where the shelters are, where the community tables are, where students can get legal aide. Fight for programs in the school system itself that face budget cuts every year, the food programs that provide three meals a day instead of just one, and the counseling. As future educators, we need to enter the teaching world prepared to start a revolution, a revolution that starts with supporting our students so they actually have the chance and the tools they need to learn, and empower them and help them move beyond the circumstances that are threatening their education and lives.

The De-Professionalism of Teachers

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. We have all heard it before, along with the "Oh, you teach? You're so lucky, you get summers off!" In a TED Talks, Sir Ken Robinson makes the statement that, in America today, the culture of education is to de-professionalize teachers.

I think one of the main contributing factors to this is through the lack of support teachers receive from the system, authorities, and the community. In the book Confessions of a Bad Teacher by John Owens, there are many examples of how this real life teacher was failed by those around him, specifically by his principal. When describing his principal's approach to telling the teachers what needs to be done, he says, “Implementing these great ideas is simply a matter of telling your people to implement them. The results will follow. If the results don’t follow, it is because the people were not good at implementing, not because they didn’t have any direction or support to do so” (Owens, 34). Throughout his first year teaching, Owens was constantly expected to achieve very dramatic goals with absolutely no support. In contrast to Owens' bad experiences with his principal, in the documentary Teach, one of the teachers named Shelby receives valuable support from her principal. Her principal worked with her on how to implement new math practices in her classroom and even video taped her to help show her areas she could work on in her teaching. By the end of the year, Shelby's math class was above the district in their test scores. This goes to show just how important it is that teachers receive support, not only from their principals but also other teachers and administrative members in the school. In another journal by an American teacher titled Educating Esmé, Esmé Codell writes about the countless times she is harassed by her principal and how she does not get any support from the other teachers in her school. When the principal goes as far as to make sexual references towards Esmé, it is no wonder she struggled with being able to teach her students in that environment. In the TED Talks mentioned above, Robinson mentions the Finnish school system and says Finland "attribute(s) a very high status to the teaching profession". As seen through the success of the Finnish school system, when teachers are treated as smart and capable professionals, the success of the students, teachers, and schools rises immensely. 

Another factor that I believe is leading to the de-professionalism of teachers in America today is the fact that many teachers are judged based solely on their students standardized test scores. This approach to assessing teachers is causing many teachers to teach to the test. This, in turn, is causing schools to eliminate the arts and humanities from the curriculum and turns teachers into test givers instead of mentors and facilitators of learning. I do believe that standardized testing has its place, especially when it comes to diagnosing students' current knowledge, but having student testing determining if a teacher gets fired or not is not really the smartest idea in the world. There are so many other factors that contribute to the students' success, or lack of, in standardized testing. Teachers should not be the only ones held accountable for test scores.

To go along with the factors occurring in the classrooms and schools themselves, there are also factors within the media that give people the idea that teachers lack the capability to teach. For example, 

What do you see while looking at this Time cover? An apple (that does not look rotten, but it must be, given the article is about those "rotten apples" and it is about to get smashed by a gavel). You may also notice that the descriptions of teachers is in black while the tech millionaires are in the white. Now, the article itself is a whole other story, but what do you think the general public thinks when they view this cover? To me, I think this cover makes it look as if the majority of teachers out there are just plain rotten, and it is time (ha, like that pun there?) to fire them…or smash them. No wonder so many Americans point the finger of blame on teachers with little to no thought. The fact that teachers are being portrayed as "rotten apples" paints a picture in the public's mind that teachers are not professionals. 

And of course, we have millionaires, like Bill Gates, who are defining what makes a good teacher or a bad teacher. This video shows just how ignorant many people are being when it comes to figuring out how to "make" a good teacher. For starters, Bill Gates defines good students, the top 20 percent, as those who go on to be involved in "biotechnology" and keep our economy running. What about the arts and humanities, the students who go on to be musicians and artists, actors and cooks? Bill Gates also goes on to say that good teachers, determined BY TEST SCORES…and that's it, that is the only way, according to Bill Gates, that we can determine how well a teacher is doing. Not by going into classrooms and observing their teaching or looking at how much a student advanced throughout the year, even if they are still considered behind grade level. The final thing that really bugs me in this video (and it's only part one!) is the fact that he points out that, after three years of teaching, teachers no longer advance in their skills. Why? Has anybody ever even stopped to wonder why? It is so important for teachers to continue on in their own education. Many third year teachers may not be advancing because they are no longer being given the tools needed to advance. Yet not once does Bill Gates consider the fact that there may be other factors to this other than the idea that he has placed in so many American's heads that it is just the teachers fault…they are just bad teachers. 

This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately, not just for the sake of the teachers, but for students as well. In order for the American education to change, America needs to re-evaluate their beliefs and treatment of teachers. In order for teachers to succeed in creating an environment that encourages student learning, they need to continue their own education through workshops, classes, and, most importantly, through the support given by experienced teachers, principals, administrators and the community.  Teachers also need to be viewed and treated as professionals who are educated and capable of doing their job successfully. Lastly, the American education system needs to come up with more ways to evaluate a teacher’s job, not just through the test scores of their students. As John Owens so keenly points out,

“Some of what a teacher achieves probably can be displayed on an Excel spreadsheet as data. But so much of it can’t. For that, peer, student, and principal review of performance can be useful…It [the goal] should be ensuring that our teachers receive the training and support they need to offer our kids the best education possible” (Owens 225-226).

When the American education system stops de-professionalizing their teachers, they can begin to address other downfalls in the system and re-create a learning environment that supports student learning, creativity, and curiosity and allows students to succeed in their lives.

Interested in the books mentioned in this post?

Codell, Esmé Raji. Educating Esmé. North Caroline: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009. Print.

Owens, John. Confessions of a Bad Teacher. Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2013. Print.