3 posts from June 2007

    I’ve been using cold calling from day one, essentially. There are only five kids in my class, so it’s an easy way to make sure everyone is paying attention and participating. The more I use it, the more comfortable the shyer kids are with speaking up. Now pretty much everyone willingly raises their hand to answer questions, so it may even be outliving its usefulness. At the beginning of summer school at least two of the kids were very hard to draw out and get to participate. I can’t say for sure that cold-calling is the reason that they’re participating more, but I think that it is.
       Of course, the class dynamic with five kids is much different than it will be in the fall with thirty, but I think the underlying principle of cold-calling, that people become more comfortable the more they are forced to participate and that knowing you could get called on raises your awareness of what’s going on, still applies.
    What I do is not strict cold-calling, since it’s not entirely random (which would be stupid with five kids). I pay attention to who seems engaged and who doesn’t, and try to involve the kids who don’t . This is easy in a class of five, probably not in a class of thirty. Also, none of my kids are so shy that they seem mortified by being called on and refuse to answer, which I’m sure will happen in the fall. I don't know exactly what I'll do when that happens, but I hope that gradually over the course of the year that all the kids will get more comfortable.

I read Elena Adamo’s focus paper on school uniforms that was written last year. Although most of the paper was very vague and there were few specific examples or analysis, the paper did touch on the main arguments for and against school uniforms.
    On the pro-uniform side, advocates of uniform dress codes point to the elimination of social distinctions, at least those manifested in attire, as the most sweeping advantage. If one of the purposes of public schooling is to unite society and promote a sense of civic cohesion, then this is a worthy goal. The main practical benefit of school uniforms according to its proponents is a reduction in classroom disruption and easier enforcement of dress policies. Behavior problems or home issues that need to be resolved are more noticeable when teachers don’t have to waste time and energy enforcing subjective dress rules. Furthermore, many parents like the idea of school uniforms because it reduces their workload and expenses.
    The main negatives that Adamo brings up are a possible infringement on students’ freedom of expression and calling into question the research supporting school uniforms. She insinuates that the suppression of individuality caused by uniforms is part of a hidden agenda to control the minds of youth. The research of Jennifer Craik is quoted, wherein uniforms are derided as “a means of training the body and enforcing certain standards of thought and behavior.” The tone the paper takes when dealing with these issues assumes a negative response from the reader, but I don’t think those goals should automatically be considered invalid. What else is classroom management if not the enforcement of certain standards of thought and behavior?
    My future school district has school uniforms and as a teacher in that district I appreciate it. I won’t have to deal with dress code issues except for obvious violations of the uniform policy. I won’t have to decide whether a girl’s shirt is cut too low or a kid’s belt is too far down his rear. I’m also writing my own focus paper on this topic, so I’m looking forward seeing the research on uniforms and their effect on school achievement.

This was my second time seeing Lalee’s kin and once again I think the most striking thing was how incredibly poor this family was. It really is unbelievable that this type of poverty exists in our country.

The absence of any consistent and positive male influence in the household certainly has a negative effect on all the children, but it is most clear and most heartbreaking in its impact on Main and Redman. Even Lalee, who cares and sacrifices for all the kids, contributes to the destructive attitude of Main by making her negative opinion of men explicitly clear. When Main gets an attitude, Lalee dismissively attributes this to him becoming “mannish.”

One thing the movie mentions obliquely but never addresses fully is the enormous family sizes and the question of birth control. This family at least for several generations was having children far beyond their means to support them, which then created a cycle of unsupervised and uneducated children, many of whom would also get pregnant as teenagers. Just knowing about condoms and other forms of birth control is no guarantee that they will be used, but you get the feeling that maybe these kids don’t even understand. This family probably couldn’t afford any type of birth control, but you’d think that the state paying for a few condoms now and educating kids might save them money down the road. It’s patently obvious that most of these kids are having sex, so moral opposition seems a moot issue at this point.