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Showing posts with label #improving student performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #improving student performance. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Flying: Helping Students Soar


Flying
Helping Students Soar by Reducing Obstacles:
 Ignorance, Fear, Poverty, Instability and Inattentiveness
By Jill Jenkins

“The more grounded you are the higher you fly”

Even though I have been retired for almost five years, I keep contemplating teaching questions like why do some children soar while others flounder.  I recently finished reading Michelle Obama’s book Becoming.   As a child, Michelle was not wealthy or powerful. Her father worked for the water department in Chicago and suffered from MS. Her mother was stayed at home until Michelle was in high school. The family did not own a house, but lived in an upstairs apartment at her great aunt’s house in the south side of Chicago.  Still, Michelle was well grounded in a loving family who had high expectations for their children and provided a rich interactive environment. Her great aunt provided Michelle and her brother with piano lessons, her parents demanded she and her brother speak correctly, and her grandfather’s home was full of music and laughter.  Michelle’s parents sent her brother to a Catholic high school and Michelle to a magnet high school so they could both be challenged intellectually.  As a result, both Michelle and her brother qualified and attended Princeton University. Michelle became an attorney and later a hospital administrator and her brother did equally as well.  As one might expect, both Michelle and her brother flourished. However, not all children are as well grounded and flight for them is difficult. Regardless some like Elon Musk and John Rockefeller succeed despite childhood hardships.  According to Elon Musk in a recent interview on Today Show on NBC, he was bullied at school suffered and from an abusive father.  According to the documentary, The Men Who Built America, John D. Rockefeller, despite having an abusive, alcoholic father, John became unimaginably successful.  What is the recipe to helping a child become successful?

            Students who are grounded with strong financial backing and parents who provide emotional support, high academic expectations, a sense of self-discipline and provide many and varying experiences for their children don’t just fly, they soar.  Students who are grounded with parent who may not be able to afford every experience for their children, but provide emotional support, love, discipline, and high academic expectations still fly high. What about those who do not provide for their children financially, emotionally and have low or not academic or behavioral expectations? These students education will be bereft of many experiences that enhance their learning and they will likely be stagnant.  As educators we don’t worry about the children who are grounded by a strong family love, high expectations for behavior and academic success, and a variety of enhancement activities in a rich, supportive environment.  Whatever we do will only help enhance what the parents are doing, but what about those who do not have this kind of family?  First, some parents are ignorant that children need a rich environment and some lack the resources to provide it.  Second, some parents fear change and fear losing their children.  As a result, they fail to provide resources and activities that the child needs.  Third, some children live in such dysfunctional families that neither emotional support nor financial resources are available for the child’s development.  Fourth, some students lack the self-discipline to endeavor through the intricacies needed to a master difficult learning.  

Some parents are either ignorant of the need to provide a rich environment for their children or are too financially strapped to provide it.  Some parents feel that if they have survived with only a high school diploma or less then their son or daughter certainly doesn’t need one.  One parent told me that he didn’t care if his son failed my class because it was only English, nothing that he would ever use in the real world.  The parents are unaware that to achieve in today’s technological world, students need some post high school education. Many parents fear that their child would be burdened with too much debt.  This is a legitimate fear considering the number of “for profit” institutions that have buried students in debt without providing them with a marketable skill. Some parents may want to provide their children with a rich environment, but can barely keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. These parents are often working two jobs.  For girls the situation is dire.  I remember my own father telling me that I didn’t need a college education because I’d probably get pregnant and never finish college. My mother told me as young as seventh grade student that boys didn’t like girls that were too smart. “Boys never make passes at girls wearing glasses.” I wore glasses and wasn’t interested in that philosophy.  Unfortunately, in many communities, discouraging girls from pursuing an education is still common.  Overcoming this attitude means educating parents and changing the social norms of the community.   Although these students may have the emotional support to be grounded, their families do not or cannot provide the rich, interactive life that child needs to reach his/her full potential.

“Despite her fears she found, the secret to an outstanding
life is risking the fall, for the possibility of flight.”
    Kyra Jackson
Some parents are afraid of change.  It isn’t uncommon for a child who earns a degree and pursues a career to relocate to another state.  Many families are spread across the country because rural communities offer few opportunities. My own daughter moved to New York because careers in journalism in Utah are almost nonexistent.  As a result, some parents are reluctant to encourage their children to pursue interests that might require relocation. Fear of failure, fear of losing connection to loved one and fear of the unknown reduces a child’s flight.

Some students live in such dysfunctional families that the child is never grounded emotionally or financially.  The Showtime television show Shameless depicts such a family where an alcoholic/drug addicted single father raises a family leaving the real parenting to the oldest daughter.  As a teacher I often saw similar families.  One of my former students was a sixteen-year-old boy financially and emotionally supporting four younger siblings because his parents were incarcerated. These children are so overwhelmed that it is unlikely they will succeed.  When an adult assumed responsibility for these children, they were able to succeed and sometimes soar.  For example another of my students was left orphaned when both of her parents died from AIDS, but luckily her godmother materialized and moved her from Puerto Rico to California.  Another student who drug addicted mother disappeared and with the help of an aunt, the three children were reunited with their biological father who provided a home, emotional support and a rich environment for them.  Sometimes the school needs to identify these students and connect them with the resources for a positive adult to help them.
I was once told that flying involves long house of boredom, interrupted              by moments of extreme fright.”
                                    Franklin W. Dixon


Grit is a necessary component of success. Unfortunately, immediate gratification is the common denominated for many of today’s youth. Television, video games and the Internet have significantly reduced students’ attention spans until many students jump to a new topic if they find learning tedious.  According to Thomas Edison, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” To help students succeed educators have to help students learn self-discipline and develop longer attention spans.  Teachers are not just there to entertain, but to help students develop life-long skills to become successful. 

            Instead of closing schools that do not achieve on tests, districts and schools need to analyze why the students are not achieving.  Class size should be reduced to allow teachers to provide emotional support for their students.  Schools should provide a variety of interactive learning experiences including field trips, arts education, music, art and theater lessons, journalism and filmmaking classes.   Students should participate in sports and socially interact in positive ways. They need to eliminate educators or are not supporting students’ emotional needs, maintaining high academic and behavioral standards and expectations for students.  Schools need to offer opportunities to expand their experience and counsel both students and parents about how to get the financial and experiences resources to enhance their education. Whatever the child needs to be successful: art, science or just the belief that they can succeed.  Despite the few shooting stars like Elon Musk and John D Rockefeller who succeeded despite hardships, educators should do all they can do; so all students can “be all they can be.”