Hope for our students
Written on May 11, 2006 – 9:47 am | by Ed Warkentin
I met a teacher up here at Scicon that comes from a low socio-economic background. She told me some tremendous things about her life that really inspired me and reminded me of why I’m in this job (or at least why I should be here).
She attributes all of her academic/professional success to the fact that her Kindergarten teacher believed in her, and has continued to believe in her. She has been to all of her graduations, and has been a part of other significant milestones in her family’s life.
When she told this to her Kindergarten teacher, she responded, “But you did all the work…”
“Yeah,” said my friend, “but we just didn’t want to let you down.”
My new friend remembers being called “wetback”, and related to me how this recent flare up of immigration issues (May 1st protests, etc.) has affected her, her students, and her colleagues. Racism and ignorance, unfortunately, are alive and well. We need to believe in our students, because for some, the come to us with so many strikes against them, including their home life, where they grew up, their race, their poverty, or whatever. They very often inadvertently believe that since they come from where they come from, they can’t make it in this world, and that they will never be able to get out of this kind of lifestyle.
We need to believe in our students. However, we must be sincere about it. She related how, during this recent political tension, some of her colleagues weren’t being respectful or hopeful about their students. Most of them probably give some sort of message of hope to their students, however, what she has heard recently told her that all of those statements of hope aren’t sincere. How devastating it would have been if she found out that her Kindergarten teacher was giving here false or insincere hope!
Many blogs that I read and podcasts that I listen to focus on the use of technology in the classroom. To a large degree, I suppose that I will be doing that, as well, but I hope that I don’t get lost in the glitz and newness of what’s going on in education, like web 2.0, that I forget some of these foundational truths. I hope that I continue to make meaningful connections with my students and instill in them important values and belief in themselves.
