> A good 70% or so were pretty much furniture. They were there because they had to be, and their parents saw school as free babysitting service. They would end up in a trade school afterward if they were lucky, or a more likely future drifting between unemployment and Walmart/McDonalds employment. Then there were the 25% who were actively opposed to learning. They existed to disrupt everything, start fights, and waste all of the teachers' and administrators' time. Most of them were into gangs, selling drugs, etc. and their presence detracted from everyone else's experience. This group is likely dead or in prison today.
There is so much here that can be looked at critically if we want to change how education is done. Looking at people as furniture is really telling about what you think of their potential. If you're people like this from a student's perspective, I can understand this. But anyone carrying this mindset as an educator should leave the profession.
I have spent my life teaching the kinds of students you describe. They're the people whose father died when they were 8 or 10 years old, and whose mom had to try and hold their family together. They're the kids who have never known sober parents. They're the kids of parents who are angry at the world. They're the kids of parents who have been arguing and hitting each other their entire lives. They're the kids whose parents never opened a book with them by the time they got to first grade.
Yes, there are some kids who grew up like this and inherently took school seriously and flourished. But they're the exception, and we can't expect everyone to respond like that. Schools really need to be restructured to truly meet kids where they are at, and work from there. It can be done, and it's not overly difficult. We tend to meet kids where they're at for a little bit, and then expect them to catch up to everyone else and stay there.
There is a small portion of the population that is really difficult to reach. But schools can do a lot more to bend to students' needs than they're currently doing, which is asking everyone to change to meet the schools' needs.
There is so much here that can be looked at critically if we want to change how education is done. Looking at people as furniture is really telling about what you think of their potential. If you're people like this from a student's perspective, I can understand this. But anyone carrying this mindset as an educator should leave the profession.
I have spent my life teaching the kinds of students you describe. They're the people whose father died when they were 8 or 10 years old, and whose mom had to try and hold their family together. They're the kids who have never known sober parents. They're the kids of parents who are angry at the world. They're the kids of parents who have been arguing and hitting each other their entire lives. They're the kids whose parents never opened a book with them by the time they got to first grade.
Yes, there are some kids who grew up like this and inherently took school seriously and flourished. But they're the exception, and we can't expect everyone to respond like that. Schools really need to be restructured to truly meet kids where they are at, and work from there. It can be done, and it's not overly difficult. We tend to meet kids where they're at for a little bit, and then expect them to catch up to everyone else and stay there.
There is a small portion of the population that is really difficult to reach. But schools can do a lot more to bend to students' needs than they're currently doing, which is asking everyone to change to meet the schools' needs.