Week Eight Blog

When I was in high school, there was one teacher who was notorious for not wanting to “deal” with parents. Granted, where I went to high school, most of the problems that occurred were petty “my kid deserves this grade” and “why did you take points off for this”. Most teachers probably do not want to deal with this. So when I first started reading this week’s articles, I was unsure of what was meant by parent involvement. However, after reading these articles, I have a better grasp on what is meant by engaging parents in schools.

One article that I found particularly interesting was “Beyond the Bake Sale.” This gave me another viewpoint of the parent/ teacher relationship, that of the minority and immigrant parents. I went to high school in a predominantly white town and graduated in a class of 300 students with less than 20 of those being minority students. The administrators at my school did not feel like they had to do much to cater to those individuals since they represented such a small percentage. However, Warren makes a good point in that immigrant parents may have an excellent understanding of their own child, but are unable to communicate to the teacher their pedagogical needs. How do we deal with this? If communities played a larger role in the school system, and if there was a network of parents who knew each other and looked out for each other’s kids, it might be a little easier. There is an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, but in my experience, the only two adults who had any hand in raising me were my two parents. I was lucky in that both my parents are white, college educated, and speak English, but what about a student of another race, who may not have college educated parents that speak little to no English? Who can help that child?

Auerbach also had an interesting point that minority or immigrant parents often push their children educationally in ways that typically go unnoticed. Listed were some examples such as limiting chores to allow for more study time, or sacrificing personal needs to allow the child to attend a private school. José, the parent of a high achieving male student, stated that “he sees that we are nothing; he wants to become something.”  His story really made me upset, because it is clear that these parents care very much for their son’s education, in ways that may go unnoticed. But to say that the parents are “nothing” is a HUGE understatement. They are playing the most important role in their son’s life, and provide him with the encouragement and support that he needs. Sure, the parents might not be seen as successful in the work field, but what they have done for their son is a far cry from “nothing.”

It is clear from these articles that parent involvement plays a huge role in a student’s success. Support from parents is not complaining to a teacher about having a few points knocked off an assignment; it is encouraging the child to be something better than what they were. I hope that when I teach, I can show all parents that I also support their children, and will take any advice from them on how to do it best.

Week Six Blog

I found Anderson’s article on gay and lesbian youth to be quite interesting. It really is terrible that these adolescents have to hide or change who they are to be accepted. It really bothers me when people say that being gay is a choice. I have a few gay friends, and seeing what they go through and have gone through, it is really obvious that they did not choose to have to struggle with who they are. One part of the article that really saddened me was the part about how sometimes, gay and lesbian students will feel sad when they see a heterosexual couple holding hands down the hallway, because the gay and lesbian students will not be able to express their feelings of affection that way with such acceptance. I everyone wants to love and feel like they are loved, and it is just really awful that society condemns a love that is as harmless as homosexuality. I was also surprised by how little support there is for gay and lesbian youths. I do not know if things have changed since 2005, but I am hoping that there are more resources now for adolescents struggling with their identity. 

After reading Fine and McClelland’s article, I was really puzzled as to how the government thought that the Abstinence Only Until Marriage approach was a good idea.  Not educating youths about contraception and safe-sex just seems naive. I think it also crosses the separation of church and state because no sex before marriage is often seen as a religious appeal. In my high school, there were about three pregnant females in my four years there, and we were a relatively small school that did teach about safe sex practices. I wonder what those numbers would be like if there was no sex education class that taught about contraception.

I also thought Dance’s article “On Being Hardcore” to be very insightful. I especially liked the part on comparing fictional stories to a real life story. It is true that these sources of media do not show these teenagers in a multidimensional light. I am in no way saying that what any of these teens did was acceptable, but I am sure there are more complexities to their lives than what is portrayed. American History X, one of my favorite films, does a great job examining the complexities of hardcore life. It is a fictional film, and there are certainly cinematic elements to it, but it does a good job portraying these hardcore people as people. The part of the article with the “Jacket Incident” was absurd. I feel like it was really based on immaturity. Who was he trying to impress by freaking out over a jacket like that? And where will it get him in life? I do not see a point in any violence, but in invoking an attack based on something as nonsensical as a jacket, I have to admit, it actually annoys me.