Literacy with an Attitude

Reflection:

     Reading this article reminded me so much of my service learning placement. First of all, the kids at the school are from lower-class families and won't get the same opportunities as upper-class just like was said in the article. Also, there was a piece of the article where Finn talked about making sure the students were always busy so then he would have no reason to be asking questions or to be yelling at them for doing the wrong thing. It seems like with the teacher in my service learning placement, that's all she ever does. The students seem to listen when she does yell but she never gives them chances and to me that's not being a very good teacher. I feel like the students are afraid of her and don't feel comfortable in the classroom. Another piece that reminded me of my service learning was the story about teachers not believeing their students can do the work. My service learning teacher tells me about how her students always fail the tests she gives them and how they're not smart at all. In my opinion, she should be doing everything in her power to be helping these kids achieve their goals in school or she's not really doing her job.
     In other ways, I really enjoyed reading this article because it made me realize what kind of teacher I want to be. One thing I don't plan on doing as a teacher is taking too long to correct papers. It may not seem like an important thing to do but to the kids, when you grade their papers on time, it makes them feel like what their doing matters and you actually care about your work. Another thing that always drove me crazy about teachers was when they forced their students to do the work only one way which in their opinion was the "right" way and even if a student got the right answer with a different method, it was still wrong. Personally, I think that if a student has found another way to do a problem a teacher has given them, let them do it. It makes the student feel better about themselves because then they feel like they are teaching the teacher and they feel more confident in their work.
     In all honesty, I'm still on the fence about this article. It makes me feel hate towards the teachers who really don't care about their students or their job. But at the same time it gives me a clear idea of what kind of teacher I don't want to be. It also really opened my eyes to how badly lower-class schools have it compared to upper-class schools and how they won't get the same opportunities just because of where they live.