What is
education?
A teacher should be able to motivate a student or child who has not yet obtained skills or knowledge in areas of academic importance. There are well-meaning teachers all over the land who are willing to teach the skills that a child or student needs in order to suceed through life. However, there are ill-meaning teachers too. There are those that just want to sit on a small bit of knowledge and work to keep the other students from persuing their goal of knowledge. It is like a power-trip of sorts... and it happens every day in the United States. Students are being told that They can't do it! They can't do it!
... but these individuals that say these words are forgetting
that they too have been there too!
For example:
When a small child first understands who their teachers
are, it can be a a good or bad thing. It is at the same time that they
realize that they are not going to obtain what their teacher should be
giving them. It is as if the teacher whom holds the resources is
withholding the resources and tools of power to ensure that this student
doesn't get what they need.
REMEMBER: IT ONLY TAKES ONE TEACHER TO SINGLE
A STUDENT OUT AND TURN THE STUDENT OFF TO EDUCATION FOREVER.
~ This student can turn cold to the whole academic setting
and never feel 'good enough' in a classroom ever again!
These students can get laughed at in the early years.
These students can lose the desire to 'be good enough' in a classroom.
No teacher ever wants to be a 'bad guy'. But, prejudices are brought into the classroom no matter what. It is to what extent the teacher understands their own prejudices. An important peice to our class-discussions during this 1-week course was the fact that YOU NEED TO GET TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE... (before you teach my baby!)
Students are not being valued and our children are not
gaining the skills and education that they should be getting.
Today, even in Oregon's own Portland Public Schools District,
students are being shortchanged! There are teachers teaching in classroom
subjects that they may not even be endorsed for- these teachers hardly
know anything about these subjects! Imagine if you were a child learning
geography from the physical education teacher... what?!
On the other hand:
A GOOD TEACHER will give the student a better view of
life. The student will always remember that teacher who had
reached out to them with patience, honesty, and a foundation of skills
that will serve them within & beyond the academic setting.
I have had experience with bad teachers. They didn't want to share their knowledge with me. I have been told, "You don't need to know that" or "This class is not for you"... and this even happens here at OSU! I am a woman of color. Teachers speak on teaching methods for children of color and how the students have to live on a budgeted-income (read: low income)- IT IS NO USE TEACHING 'EM! <------ How can this be said????
Not all Children that enter the fourth grade can read,
write or let alone spell. If one of these teachers doesn't pay as
much attention to a student of color because "there aint no use in teaching
'em!" what kind of an education is this child going to get?
This may follow the child all throughout their lifetime.
The Universities need to re-evaluate the teachers that
are going into schools and find out if these individuals are really ready
to go into a classroom. The pre-service teachers need to be tested
on what they can bring to a classroom. Community members should even
be able to be tested-into the teaching profession- BECAUSE, AFTER ALL-
ARN'T WE ALL TEACHERS?