25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them (20 page)

SCENARIO 10.5
Separate and Unequal Treatment

In the first grade, the teacher put my desk in the back of a room and separated me from the rest of the class. Her reason for doing this was because I did not speak English.

How to teach language minority students has been a source of controversy and debate for a long time. Researchers have offered a variety of techniques and approaches for teaching limited-English-proficient (LEP) children, but none advocate singling out LEP students and isolating them by banishing them to the periphery of the classroom where they become out of sight and out of mind. The teacher’s actions may be rooted in racism, but her fear of not being able to rise to the challenge presented by LEP children also seems evident.

Teachers who successfully teach LEP children would never employ such a discriminatory practice. They realize that isolating children because they are a teaching challenge violates all the rules of effective pedagogy. The charge of teachers is to teach all children, regardless of the challenge they bring to teaching them. Delgado-Gaitan (1990) contends that language may be a major source of student academic failure.

Torrey (1983) proposes that poor academic performance of children speaking nonstandard English may be attributed more to the school’s reaction to the nonstandard English than to the grammar itself. The same may be true of limited-English-proficient children. The teacher’s reaction may be more of a factor. The teacher in this scenario had an unacceptable reaction to the student’s language. Effective teachers react appropriately to students with language limitations. There are several strategies for teaching LEP children. Macias (1986) offers some strategies that are appropriate for this scenario; give clear directions, describe tasks accurately, demonstrate and explain new information, pace instructions, actively involve the students, and expect that all children will succeed. These basic tenets of effective pedagogy cannot be accomplished if the student is placed in the back of the room and ignored.

SCENARIO 10.6
Lesson in Oppression

My worst experience in education was undoubtedly in the fifth grade. We had just moved (again) to Montgomery, Alabama, and the year was 1962. Today I still have difficulty reminding myself of the horrors people put upon other people.

The school was integrated but that didn’t matter because few blacks attended school there. Students or their parents had to purchase their own textbooks and worksheets, which excluded many from attendance.

There was one black student, D., and even though he had no books, no shoes, he still tried to make it work. Many of the students actually helped D. or tried to, but in the end, the teacher failed him miserably. I can still see his face, choking back tears at the indignation heaped upon him by this supposed “teacher.”

Overt racism is an insidious contaminant that befouls all that embrace it, encounter it, or just witness it. The author of this scenario witnessed man’s inhumanity to man through the teacher’s race-based ill treatment of another student. The teacher’s intent was to hurt or discriminate against the black student, not realizing that some of the white students would experience that hurt vicariously. A study done by Woolfolk and Brooks (1983) showed that teachers are influenced by a student’s physical appearance and, in some cases, may withhold smiles, approval, and eye contact, yet may readily disperse disapproval of students they perceive as less desirable. This teacher’s prejudices, biases, and lower expectations for the black student obscured her view of his efforts and struggle and hardened her resolve to fail him. The long-lasting negative effects of her actions are evidenced in this author’s inability to forget what happened.

Effective educators realize that they cannot let the way that they feel about children influence the way that they teach them and interact with them. This is a tall order to expect teachers to put aside their bias or prejudice toward members of a group and treat them fairly. Prejudice is a learned behavior that is fostered by stereotypes and fueled by ignorance. The good news is that prejudice can be unlearned if teachers care enough to find out more about a particular culture, to embrace diversity, and to celebrate differences. Fortunately, some changes have been made for black students since 1962. Today, over 40 years later, teachers are beginning to accept multicultural education as an integral part of the curriculum. Today we are approximating educational opportunity for all students. We have not totally eradicated racism from the classroom, but thanks to diversity training and to advocates of multicultural education, we have chased it into a dark corner so that it is not as blatant as it once was. When enlightened educators see children struggling to overcome the effects of poverty, the barbs of racism, the barriers of class, and the shackles of ignorance, they lift those children with their words of praise and support, their high expectations, and their beliefs in their students’ ability to make it. Sprinthall et al. (1994) caution that teachers must be aware of their own attitudes because those attitudes can seriously impact what is conveyed to students. Banks and Banks (1993) offer a variety of approaches to multicultural education that can help today’s teachers avoid intentional or unintentional discrimination against students.

SCENARIO 10.7
Culture Clash

My worst experience that I understand now but didn’t then was the teachers’ lack of understanding of students’ cultural background, specifically for those students who were learning English as a second language.

The changing face of our nation’s schools presents a host of challenges for teachers. A major challenge is the culture clash that frequently evolves from a predominantly white, female teacher workforce and an increasingly diverse student body. The U. S. workforce is 87% white and 72% of that number are women (Smith, 1995). By the year 2020, there will be 61% more Hispanic children between the ages of 14 and 17 and 47% more between the ages of 5 and 13 in the U.S. schools. The number of limited-English-proficient children increased from 1.25 million in 1979 to 2.44 million in 1995 (Smith, Young, Bae, Choy, & Alsalam, 1997). This culture clash is rooted in the differences in the cultural knowledge and economic background of teachers and students. White teachers are more likely to be middle class and minority children are more likely to be urban with low socioeconomic status. The problem as articulated by Cushner, McCelland, and Safford (1992) is that white, middle-class teachers may not be very interested in understanding the cultural differences in their more diverse students. “At best, such teachers are predisposed to regard diversity as interesting; at worst, they are likely to regard it as deficit” (p. 8).

Insightful teachers know the importance of being knowledgeable
and respectful of cultural diversity. Whether they are black, white, Hispanic, or Native American, these teachers are ready for the future. They have accepted America’s charge to educate all children. These teachers incorporate a variety of strategies to bridge the gap between the cultures, such as respecting students, attaching value to their responses, making classroom activities more meaningful by incorporating students’ life experiences, values and culture, and by rejecting a cultural deficit model of diversity (Gersten, 1996). Most important, they will seek to understand from the child’s point of view.

Mistake

11

Humiliation

SCENARIO 11.1
Chalkboard Etiquette

While I was in high school, I had a lot of problems understanding geometry and algebra. I remember the first day I was shown higher algebraic problems and was terrified. Mr. B. was also very intimidating to me. He taught very fast and harshly. One day in class, we were doing problems on the board and he called me up to work a problem. Being that I was shy, I was struck with fear. I went up to the board and attempted to work the problem not knowing what I was doing. Mr. B. said harshly, “What are you doing? Don’t you know you can’t do that? What is this?” He totally humiliated me in front of the class and made me feel like an idiot, and I still have a fear of talking to teachers about things I don’t understand because I don’t want to feel like an idiot. I fear math to this day.

Some teachers seem to think that calling students to the chalkboard grants them a license to humiliate. Chalkboards have frequently been the settings for exercises in humiliation and degradation. Teachers can call students to the board at will. Students usually don’t have a choice; they must go or suffer the consequences of insubordination. Once students are at the board, they’re at the mercy of their teachers. The students are psychologically naked, exposed, and at risk of looking stupid in front of the class.

Many teachers erroneously believe that they can shame students into performing well. They readily chastise or berate a student in front of an audience believing that this rather noxious form of humiliation will get better results. In some cases, it may change student behavior. Students may study and pay attention to the lesson to avoid being embarrassed in front of the class.