As an inner city teacher I won’t pretend to be an expert on suburban or rural teaching. From what I’m told and have read, the subject matter is comparable, the top down authoritative style is similar and also occasionally naïve: but the children are very different because they have very different parents. In my first year as an inner city teacher 50% of my students were in foster care, and I experienced the first murder in my student family. (A student’s brother in an intact family was shot and killed).
After 13 years in the inner city I reminded a colleague the most important quality in our business is the ability to forget. She wholeheartedly agreed.
Kids are kids. They can be rude, disrespectful, outlandish, and display unacceptable behavior. They frequently test their power and often, unfortunately, without limits at home, our classroom organization is where they learn about what is and is not acceptable.
Of course the same kid whom frays your last nerve can also be sweet, honest, and the most in need of our supervision. Frequently I think our guidance, our structure is more important than the subjects we teach.
So I have learned, even though I may huff and puff, and even though I may blow their doors down, I never completely become the big bad wolf. And when there is an opportunity for learning experiences, the only thing I want to remember is how to build on the previous one: and since I am now teaching the Civil War, I’ll put it this way: “with malice toward none, charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in.”
May 3, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I agree, Keith. Every day is a new opportunity for both teacher and student. When even the most annoying of students comes to “hang out” in your classroom after school,or wants to have lunch in your room, you know there is something you reached inside of them. It may not change the class behavior or the amount of effort given, but a climate of safety and trust has been founded. Sometimes that’s the most important thing at that time for that student. Our rooms may be the only place they get that respite from a daily round of chaos and general disorganization.
May 10, 2008 at 7:58 am
Funny you should mention that. On this Saturday morning, as I refelct on the week, I’m wondering why one young man, notorious for sleeping through all his classes, has recently begun coming to my class every day after school. Now, If I could figure out how to reach him.