My teacher for this past few weeks has been Caren Carrillo. This post was particularly interesting. Apparently Florida state Rep. Kelli Stargel has introduced a bill in which teachers would grade their students' parents on levels ranging from unsatisfactory to satisfactory. You can read the article here. The parents would be graded in three categories:
1. A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
2. A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
3. There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.
She agrees that parents should be held responsible for their children getting to school on time, at least until they can drive. That one is easy enough to agree with. For the next part, Caren agrees that breakfast is extremely important, but how in the world would you know for sure if a child ate breakfast? Do we put video cameras in the homes? Some kids chose not to eat breakfast and then some have candy for breakfast. The next part was a good night's sleep. Caren feels this part to be completely absurd. I mean any parent knows that you can try and promote good sleeping, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. The next part was that children should have homework done. She states that homework should be done, but teachers have to make it clear enough for parents to understand. We have to realize that education is constantly changing and parents learned things differently than their children are. The last point was regular communication. Caren wonders if their would be a quota for how many times a parent must talk to a teacher. I personally think that communication is just as much the teacher's responsibility as it is the parent's.
The next part of her article is about the implications of this grading policy:
1. Hurts Families of Lower Socioeconomic Status
2. Gives Advantages to Families of Higher SES
3. Divides Teachers and Parents Instead of Fostering Teamwork
4. School Attendance is Mandatory, Caring is Not
5. "Should" and "Must" are Two Very Different Things
On these points I couldn't agree more. In our education system we already have huge gaps in racial, socioeconomic, and cutural areas. This parent grading policy would only serve to widen those gaps.
A Teacher's Frightening Power
In the opening paragraph of her blog Caren states that she believes that teachers are responsible for how students feel about school. She tells about an experience she has in one of her graduate level courses. She explains herself to be a critical thinker who questions everything put in front of her. Apparently the teacher wasn't too found of her thinking. She tells that her professor often sarcastically tries to humiliate her in front of the class for being a divergent thinker. She feels defeated by this and considers shutting down and giving up in the class.
Then a light bulb goes off, has she ever made one of her students feel this way? If Caren being a motivated graduate level student can be made to feel so defeated, how much more can a teacher make a grade school student feel?
I really enjoyed reading Caren's post. It really did show the enormous power a teacher can have in a student's life. You've all heard the saying that with power comes enormous responsibility, and that is certainly true for teachers. We have to be extremely careful with the power we've been given. We must motivate and encourage independent thinking in our classroom and be careful to never ridicule a student. Caren closes with, "I need to approach my classroom in a way that makes students feel validated as long as they're thinking. I'm sure it's a difficult thing to accomplish, but it's now a top priority." Caren, it will definitely be a top priority of mine as well.
Caren goes on to
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