We Need A New Ship, We Need a New System

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond, Urban Adolescents

“And in the face of demands for perpetual growth in achievement indidcators, addressing the connection of learning to well-being can seem like ‘one more thing’ added to an already overflowing plate” (Weston, K. et al, 2018, pg. 106).

Sometimes it feels as though teachers are the fingers plugging all the holes in the ship before the water takes it down. The problem being we only have so many fingers, and maybe we just need a better ship? As an educator I want to be everything to my students. I understand that our job will sometimes entail being a sensitive listener, a community activist, a safe space, a punching bag, an ally or a resource for social services, justice and more. As a person who believes in young people, I do not have a problem making myself available, learning what I need to learn and doing what I need to do. Yet… I am angry about it, I am frustrated about it, I am resentful. Why must educators be the gatekeepers to all adolescent well-being? Why are we sometimes the last hope for young people? Why if we hold so much value in shaping a young person’s life are we still so undervalued, and underpaid? Why aren’t there more social workers or counselors in school? Why aren’t these professionals available to they entirety of our communities including parents and teachers? Why doesn’t the school day allow for more space to be, to sit with an idea, to sit with each other?

Time and time again we ask the people to do more, the people who are already doing the most, when we should be asking the system to do more, to be better to be there for us. Educators should absolutely commit to growth just as we expect our students too, but we are human, we are one part of the whole that touch a young person’s life. The world expects teachers to be everything, and in return I ask the world to provide us with everything. We need a new ship, we need a new system.

When are they going to believe us?

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

Some kids are so dysfunctional…it takes all of our efforts and I don’t see it getting any better. That’s why people don’t go into teaching. They are not paid well, they’re not appreciated, and it’s stressful.
(Weston, Ott & Rodger, 2018, pg. 108)

When it comes to the profession of teaching, people have many opinions about our jobs. It’s known that we aren’t paid well, but people tend to obsess over our schedules, specifically our summer breaks. If you’re focusing on just one component of the teaching profession as an isolated entity, you’ll miss the point completely. I think this quote sums it up perfectly. Sure, we aren’t paid well, but we also aren’t appreciated. That’s obvious in how people simply discredit our complaints about our deficient wages with the argument that we have multiple days off. They are unable to factor in what our day even consists of, nor what our free time requires of us in order to get everything done to continue providing learning opportunities for all students. Continue reading When are they going to believe us? →

You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

“Another teacher was forced to leave the profession for a while, due to her own mental health issues, but felt she had to hide the true cause of her need to step away.”
Weston et al. (2018)

What struck me about this article was the brief mention of mental health struggles that many teachers come to face and how this relates to student mental health issues. It was a reminder that mental health is not just a concern for students, but for teachers as well, which is in turn a reminder that students and teachers are both human beings with very real mental health and self-care needs that must be met before success can be achieved in school. Continue reading You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup →

Homosexuality should be treated impartially

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality

“I will never forget an in-service workshop we had one day within my first year. A group, PFLAG (Parents, families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), was coming in to discuss their involvement in the community, the resources they offer, etc. A couple of my colleagues refused to attend, saying they don’t agree with homosexuality and they are not going to have it shoved down their throats. To watch them respond in that way made me wonder how they would respond to a student who may come to them with gender identity issues” (Castro, I.E, & Sujak, M.C. 2014)

Sexual minority, especially homosexuality, has been a popular topic and discussed by people for a very long time. As the educators, how could we help with these situations? What schools and teachers can actually do to help with the sexual minority? I think people should have an impartial attitude when facing the gender and their sexual direction. In China, homosexuality is still an issue, which people are hard to accept homosexuality in a short time, let alone the school services. I think schools and educators should have a right attitude towards the homosexuality students and those minority students. From La Greca and Harrison (2005), they found out that heterosexual adolescents who were not dating were more likely to report anxiety symptoms compared to youth who were dating. That is to say, dating has some benefits: it can increase people’s social abilities, especially communication skills.
However, adolescents are more often staying at school, so providing a good environment for those minority students school make them feels safe and positive.

“Marica” in Colombia: A feeler, NOT a Filler

Urban Adolescents

“Almost all of LGBTQ students (98.1%)
heard “gay” used in a negative way
(e.g., “that’s so gay”) at school; 67.4%
heard these remarks frequently or
often, and 93.4% reported that they felt
distressed because of this language.
• 95.8% of LGBTQ students heard other
types of homophobic remarks (e.g.,
“dyke” or “faggot”); 58.8% heard this
type of language frequently or often.” (GLSEN, 2015 page 5)

In an atmosphere of questioning it all, from guilt to shoe taste, from desire to excess, it is only fair to question language as well. Colombians use the word “marica” as a conversation filler, almost in the same frequency as Americans use “like”. The difference is the literal meaning of the word. It can be translated as an adjective used negatively, into the words “gay” or “fag”, and it can also be used with this intention. It can be the replacement of “dude” to refer to anyone (someone you know, someone you barely know, someone you don’t know, someone you like, someone you do not like) or it can be used as “fool” or “gullible”. There are rules to use it pragmatically so that they can fit a particular register or situation. A native Colombian would know perfectly when, how, where and who to use it with. It is such part of the “evolution” or “involution” of language, such a result of the innovation of words, that even if it bothers some older generations, most of us are used to it. We’ve normalized it.
Shouldn’t we question this too? The normalization of a word that refers to men that perform in feminine manners, says something deeper about our language. Language is a changing entity, a live creature that collides, merges, pullulates. The structure of language is an opportunity to reflect upon our reality. We cannot speak without thinking because we may reject those questions and reflections we have asked ourselves through out existence. When we use the word “marica” in a particular context, it is not just a normalized use of a former unpleasant word, but it is rather informing me of something that has happened to my language. Carolina Sanín, a brilliant Colombian writer, described it as a “problem that she has posed (SHE refers to the tongue which is feminine in Spanish). She is informing of an idea about the being in my language who has become sayable, audible and ordinary”. Sanín continues: “Grammatical warning does not limit me, it reminds me that I am within language and it gives me mobility inside it… it is mine but not only mine… it is the bond between speakers… in a shared vehicle.” So what’s the reason behind the use of this word? Is it offensive to the LGBTQ community back home as in the survey? What is it telling about Colombian social structures? How did it permeate so many conversations without people noticing? Do we notice?