"These changes that occur during the period of transition from childhood to adolescence should be reflected, we believe, in a transitional school program." (p.165)
This transitional school that Alexander talks about does not exist in the MPS school district, while at least not at the school that I am currently at. They treat these kids as though they are still children and then wonder why they do not act like adults. The kids in my school are not allowed to be in the hallways in between classes without supervision. They actually are walked to their next class in a line by my cooperating teacher. They are given 20 minutes for lunch in which they are required to sit at their table and not allowed to get up until the teacher tells them that they can dump their trays and then line up in order to be escorted back to class again. I think it is funny when I hear the teachers talk about how the kids want to be treated like adults, but they don't act like adults. Of course they are not going to start acting like adults when you are constantly treating them like children and not giving them the opportunity to actually become adults. I mean even in the classroom they are constantly yelled at for every little thing. I taught a vocab lesson the other day that was supposed to be fun and active, but my cooperating teacher started to yell at them because they were being too loud and were not in their assigned seats. I don't know if the rest of the schools are like this, but I feel that my school is grooming these kids to be kids for the rest of their lives and not giving them the tools that they need to become a functioning part of an adult society.
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5 years ago
6 comments:
It all comes down to expectation. It wasn't until I started working in a school that I realized how much power a teacher has over a student, merely by what the teacher expects out of him/her. So just like your story when teachers believe that students can't behave like adults they never will. It really scares me because I also see this in the school I work with. Especially because I work in a school that is K-8 I feel like that greatly effects they way they are treated. Even the way they can conduct research or learn on a higher level; I mostly see the older kids when they are studying in the library and becuase they share materials with the younger kids there is really nothing for them that's on their level. This goes back to them being stunted in their education and communicating and learning like young kids.
You are absolutely correct. Although I have not started my middle school placement yet, I seen the exact same situation in my currins 100 field work. They treat the children like prisoners! There really is no other way to put it. So no, I do not see how kids are going to start acting like adults when you treat them like inbisols. This same treatment is continued many times in high school, where they are supposed to be teaching young adults to act like adults, or what their opinion of what an adult should be. Then most kids are sadly in for a rude awakening when they graduate and have to get a real job. After graduation, I constantly found myself wondering how high school prepared me for adulthood. Sadly, I concluded that it did not help the transition at all, but rather hindered it through all the strict regulations and rules.
And then, thanks to these "prison-like" conditions of middle schools, we freshmen teachers have to implement the de-institutionalization process for those kids who don't know how to do anything on their own...
so frustrating.
I completely understand where you are coming from. I observed at a school a few years ago that sounds just like this. I was shocked at how little they were allowed to communicate. If I was a student at that school I am sure I would be going crazy and lashing out just to get a moment of vocalization! I agree that if we do not treat students like adults then how will they ever begin to act like them. I believe that the key to a respectful and structured classroom is to set ground rules and explain the consequences for those rules. Like Amy said at the beginning of the semester, keep them short and sweet and enfore them. You have to enforce the rules equally as well across the classroom, not just to the so-called "problem students" that you have personally chosen out.
What needs to be established is what makes an adult, an adult? If it is the way they act then I have met many "adults" that would'nt be considered adults because they still act like children. That doesn't mean that their boss should start making them raise their hands to go to the bathroom and having them wait in the hallway for them to take them to the next room to make photocopies (or whatever). My co-op teacher allows her kids to make certain decisions for themselves, such as where they want to sit but if things start getting out of control she reminds them that she is treating them like adults and if they cannot prove to her that they can handle it, then she will go to treating them like children. I think so many teachers do it the opposite way - where they make the children prove they are adult enough to do certain things & that's when I believe the students start to revolt. Mainly because they are not stupid, they catch on that they are being treated like kids and if they are then they are going to "act their age." The teacher then doesn't believe she/he can ever give them room to move (so to speak) and it's a vicious cycle. I just hope we can break this cycle. :)
The difference between the transitional middle school that Alexander writes of and that of MPS is the fact that MPS is eliminating middle schools altogether. How many of us are actually in a traditional middle school or junior high (grades 6-8 or 7-9)?? The principal in the school I worked in last year (a K4-8) explained that MPS was adopting some sort of theory about the learning that occurs in a K-8 versus a middle school for middle school-aged children. That's part of the problem I believe. They're still referred to as children, and then all of a sudden, grade nine hits and they have to be adults. WHERE DOES ADOLESCENCE FIT IN? This so-called transitional period is non-existent. And it's not just in MPS. This is being adopted because supposedly it's working somewhere. What Amy mentioned is what I'm experiencing in my own classroom. My cooperating teacher is signing kids' planners because they never before learned how to organized, have separate folders for separate classes, and are basically lost. Never before did they have to do anything on their own, and all of a sudden kids are failing because they dont know how to organize their work and schedules. My coop handles it well, but I can feel my own frustration with this in the future...
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