All posts by Thomas

Peer pressure

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

“The most effective approaches teach students how to resist and deal with powerful social influences. These approaches rely on interactive teaching methods and require a commitment to teacher training.”  Philip (2006) This is Your Brain on….Understanding and Curbing Adolescent Substance Abuse.

I find it interesting that, according to this article, the most effective method to help prevent drug use among teens is teaching them to deal with social pressure. I find it interesting because it is implicitly stating that most teenagers would make the right decision were it not for their peers. That is very promising and somewhat surprising. I also think that in order for them to make the right decisions, they must be accurately informed of the dangers and consequences of doing drugs. Though the article states that being armed with the accurate information alone is not extremely effective due to adolescents general disregard for risks, if this information is paired with instruction on how to resist and deal with powerful social pressures, then adolescents have a much better chance of making good decisions. I grew up in a time when the effects and consequences of drugs were exaggerated, which just amplified the distrust many youths had for the authority figures propagating this information. This distrust and misinformation did little to help adolescents make good decisions or to form meaningful relationships with their teachers and other adults who could otherwise provide valuable support to them. Adolescents, like all others, deserve to be told the truth. They also need strategies to think independently and critically, particularly in regard to peer pressure. I really hope that there is more of a commitment to teacher training in this.

It is  discouraging that more teacher training seems to be the solution for many of the issues facing students today because it implies that not enough is being done on many levels.

A lack of representation

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality, Urban Adolescents

“only 18 percent of students said they had studied anything related to LGBT issues or people in any of their classes, a statistic that has shown no significant change since GLSEN’s 2001 survey…” Still in the Shadows; Michael Sadowski.

This statistic speaks volumes. As we mentioned in the beginning of class, the silencing of a topic communicates a lot. By deeming and keeping this topic taboo communicates that it is not acceptable, among other things. The book went on to quote a student who said, “the gay rights movement is not even mentioned during the civil rights chapter in my American history textbook.” This is unacceptable because what educators, book publishers, politicians, and many others are doing is silencing the truth that they find uncomfortable. Apart from silencing the truth, they are creating a hostile environment for others in order for themselves to feel more “comfortable.” It really is sickening. As educators it is our responsibility to create a safe environment for all of our students despite the restraints put on us by politicians, text books, and intolerant people. This is no easy task because there will be many times when we are put in uncomfortable positions to do this. I firmly believe that we have to train for this, and it is my hope that there will be professional development  opportunities for this. The book does offer some great ideas such as incorporating LGBT issues into our curriculum, talking openly about the issue, challenging stereotypes and shattering taboos, and being supportive and available for all students. They also mention the fostering of healthy peer relationships by having  a gay-straight alliance group, which is something teachers can easily support. I think that this alliance is extremely important because the students are the ones who really need to change the culture with the guidance of adults. Teachers can control what goes on in the classroom to a degree, but they have no control what goes on outside the classroom; the students are the ones who have control there, so they are the ones who need to create a safe, positive, accepting culture that doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any of its ugly forms.  The article offers many ways to be supportive, but I would have liked some more strategies to help teachers directly address discrimination and bullying of LGBT students.

Gender matters.

Gender Socialization & Identities, Urban Adolescents

“In school, however, many of the boys reported that they never felt in control and this alienated them from their studies.”  Michelle Galley

I found this to be a very interesting article. The sentence about not being in control really stood out to me because I could relate to it and never really thought of it that way. I think that many people become disengaged with learning because they often feel that they have no control over what they are learning or how they are learning.  I know I certainly felt this way in middle school and the beginning of high school; the last 2 years of high school I felt that I was offered more choices as a learner, and I loved that. I believe by being offered some choices and control over what I learned in some classes , I was more accepting and open-minded about the material that I had less control over.  I think that having control over how one learns has improved somewhat over the years, but from the little that I have seen in the classroom in the US, students usually have very little choice over what they learn. Of course, teachers are supposed to take into account the students’ interests, and they do, but the information is usually presented from the teacher’s perspective rather than the students. I guess I should be happy that student interests are considered at all.

I was actually talking to a student today about this. He was telling me how he didn’t like the books he was assigned and really hoped that he would be given a list to choose from instead of being assigned a specific book. He didn’t feel that the books were that relevant to his particular experience; I told him that I had felt the same way in high school and that the books that I didn’t care for turned out to be some of my favorite books when I went back to read them later.  We both agreed that much of our lack of interest in the books undoubtably came from our being obligated to read them. We had no choice or control over what we were to learn. I think it can be complicated with large classes, curriculum standards, and school standards, but I think it is important to give students some control over what they are learning. Even if it is as simple as giving them 2 or 3 choices, at least most will feel that they had some say in what they learn.

The main focus of the article was gender differences. Though I found it interesting, and important to acknowledge and be aware of the differences that exist between genders, I agree with the conclusion of the article that these differences are generalizations and that all students are unique, complex individuals and must be treated as such.

 

Fighting stereotypes

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“Although schools play an active role in perpetuating these and other stereotypes, they also contain the seeds of potential change. Schools can curricular change that disrupt and challenge these stereotypes.” Stacey J. Lee

As educators we are in a a unique and powerful position to help fight social injustices such as stereotyping. As the reading suggests, one way to do this is through the curriculum. Though they may have improved a bit over the years, many, if not most, of school curricula are dominated by white European narratives. This functions to exclude or severely marginalize minority ethnic groups, their importance, and their contributions. The effects can be devastating, as the article explains. Ethnic groups, such as Asian Americans, get the message that their stories and contributions are not as important in our society. I found it extremely sad to learn many things in this article, one being that many Asian Americans don’t describe themselves as American because they know that others don’t see them that way. This sort of exclusion is unacceptable. This is a result of white domination that persists in our society in many forms. It is our job as teachers to remedy this injustice by working to include the stories of Asian Americans and other minority ethnic groups into our curriculum and by valuing and honoring the realities of all who make up our multicultural society.

 

What is cool?

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

My MVP this week comes from “We Real Cool”: Toward a Theory of Black Masculine Literacies, by David E. Kirkland. The passage that really stuck out for me was: “These scholars have argued that, for the most part, black males’ lives are compromised deeply by the pursuit of coolness, as coolness corresponds with negative behaviors that impair their ability to succeed academically.” While this isn’t the focus of the article, it struck a chord with me because, unfortunately, it is often true. Of course much depends on how you define “cool”, which I think, and hope, has changed since I was an adolescent. I know that my personal choice to be “cool”  affected me academically and in many other ways and has had a big impact on my life. I really liked the article a lot, but I wish it got more into how the cool people could be reached in an academic setting because it can be very challenging to reach many of them since they tend to reject and suspect those outside of their social circles, particularly adults that they see as conformists. I know that at the end of middle school and my first two years of high school, I didn’t trust many, if any, of my teachers and wasn’t really interested in what they were trying to teach me; as a result, I missed out on a lot. As a teacher, I really don’t want to see this happen to others. It would be nice if what was considered cool, could be redefined, as I’m hopeful it has for many.