Case Study: This Suit’s for Wearing
Question: “In the past, schools segregated students on the basis of various differences. How do schools continue to segregate students today? Justify your response.”
Classmate’s Analysis:
The high school I attended was horrible for “segregating” its students. The school did not have a cafeteria, instead it had 3 large staircases that students sat on to eat lunch. Each staircase was coloured and depending on your rank in the school determined where you would sit for lunch. As a grade 10 student arriving at the school it was intimidating to decided which stairs to sit on as they would become your high school label. The yellow stairs were for the popular kids grades 10 -11, if you were not in one of the popular groups you would be humiliated for sitting on the stairs by others. The blue stairs were only for the grade 12 students, if you were not in grade 12 then you would be bullied by the grade 12 students if you sat there. The red stairs were known as where the nerds, geeks, outsiders and unpopular students sat; anyone could sit there. It was known by the principle and teachers where what kind of student sat.
The beginning of the case resonates with me because I was known as a student who sat in the corner area above the yellow stairs with my friends. We sat there partly in defiance to the system and in part because we were not welcome on the yellow stairs. To this day I still cannot believe that the stairs were not separated by grades. Due to the acceptance of the stairs by the majority of the students it reinforced labels and differences within the school. I hope that this system is still not in place today.
My Response:
This was interesting to read about. From what I can tell is that this was a sort of unofficial but well known and obeyed system of social segregation, correct? If so, something similar existed at my high school. The school was constructed in a square shape and the four hallways were labelled A, B, C, and D hall. A hall was the area where few people went because the only classrooms over there were the metal and wood shops. Therefore, people who hung out in A hall at break times were considered “weird”. Many of those who hung out in A hall were students who spent most of their time in the shops anyways and because they chose to spend their time there rather than all over the school mingling with others they were considered to be less popular. Therefore, they were termed “A hall kids” and everybody knew what the title implied.
Similarly, but existing as a result of official rules, were the “resource room students”. These students were kids with cognitive disabilities who spent most of their day with support staff and outside of the common classroom area. Nobody purposely meant to single out these students but the title for them came as a natural result of the school’s system of addressing students who needed a sort of alternate education. Therefore, the resource room students label was a product of officially implemented educational segregation.
Case Study: A Stitch in Time
Question: “How should schools balance the rights of behaviourally disordered students with the rights of their classmates to be safe? Explain why you think so.”
Classmate’s Analysis:
All students have the right to be safe and feel safe in their classroom/school. The reality of the situation is that schools are composed of a variety of abilities and behaviours. Often the diversity goes beyond the students alone, as we see in this case. Parental views and understandings contribute to the complexity of each and every situation.
I believe that first and foremost the physical safety of each student must be addressed. With my experience as a CEA, I can personally attest to the reality of day-to-day supervision. It only takes a moment to be distracted by another student that needs your attention for an incident to happen. Knowing the layers in this situation, parental concerns, past conflicts, predictability of behavior, and unpredictability of students, I would have arranged for this particular student to eat where there was no chance of an incident. Perhaps in one of the administrator’s office. The balance is seen when each child’s self-worth remains intact. The separation is not seen as a punishment, but as a tactic to avoid an incident. Once an incident occurs, the job then becomes complex, managing reactions often out of your control. It is best to establish the risk of occurrence and input strategies that avoid potential conflict directly into behaviour plans.
My Response:
I enjoyed reading about your experiences as a CEA and how they give you insight that aided your response. I could not agree more that in order to mediate interactions between groups or individuals effectively there needs to be a balance created by respect for all. As you mentioned, this is to protect each student’s self-worth. Thinking about this brings up a memory from EDPR 3100. I was in a 2/3 class and there was one student who vented his anger through physical expression. For example, he might throw things if something ticked him off, thus putting those around him in danger. I asked my teacher mentor how she deals with this issue and she told me her strategy was to remove him from the room but refrain from using negative language such as, “you are being bad” or “that is bad behaviour”. The purpose behind this strategy was to avoid having that student, and others, feel like he was a bad person. As a result that student’s self worth would remain intact. Therefore, the student always felt like he had a place in the classroom even after a meltdown and his fellow classmates were always there willing to welcome him back in. I saw this play out several times and found it to be pretty wonderful to observe.
Case Study: The Future is Now
Question: “Do you think that critical thinking, social responsibility, and interpersonal skills are necessarily compromised when an educational system embraces technology? Justify your position.”
Classmate’s Analysis:
Technology in the classroom is a topic that I initially had negative feeling towards. After my first practicum and being in a classroom that relied heavily on technology, whether it was through the smartboard or ipads and laptops for the students to use, I was able to see its benefits in practice. Currently, I would say I’m neither fully for nor against it. I understand that technology in the classroom allows for endless opportunities to present information to students and can really cut down on effort and planning, however, like many things, it is important to find a balance.
I believe that critical thinking skills can be taught and promoted from an appropriate use of technology as it opens the door for many different approaches and activities that elicit critical thinking, however, relying or focusing on it alone is never a good thing. Social responsibility, in my opinion, can be benefited the most by using technology. The unlimited access to news stories, research articles, and just a wealth of information in general, ranging from happenings in our small community to the state of the entire planet, gives us the opportunity as teachers to support and enrich our students to become educated citizens who are motivated to do more. Interpersonal skills are an area that I believe suffers more than the others. In the classroom, I associate technology with distracted students all doing their own thing online. I also hold the belief that present-day children have too much “screen-time” in their leisure to begin with, and that they do not need to constantly rely on technology at school as well. I believe that face-to-face interactions are now extremely limited due to everyone’s online presence through social media, online shopping, video calls, texting, etc. I am extremely guilty of this, as I am sure many of us are. In my opinion, students relying on technology at such a young age, suffer more than us. I say this because many of us (depending on your age) grew up without this reliance on technology to get in touch or stay in touch with people and a majority of our interactions were done face-to-face, thus, forcing us to develop our interpersonal skills. Students these days have been born into a world rich with technology and don’t know anything different. To many, their lives of communicating to their friends through a screen, playing games, accessing different social media platforms, etc., is what is normal to them. Picking up the phone and having a conversation over it, or even better, in person, has become uncomfortable and awkward.
My Response:
I agree with your position! Access to the internet is undoubtedly drastically changing the classroom and what is possible within it. Having a class set of devices for web browsing creates so many opportunities for inquiry, student-led research, and project based learning. Additionally, as mentioned, there is that social responsibility piece that is enhanced by technology. As they are no longer restricted to printed sources such as books and newspapers, students can stay up to date with current events and track how they play out in real time. This open the door for rich conversation that not only elicits critical thinking skills but also helps bring students to understand the importance of keeping up with the world around them. It is often said that the demand for students to do this is a source of stress and anxiety, but I hold the belief that as citizens in this digital age we are obligated to seek out answers for ourselves rather than relying on the information that is funnelled to us via mainstream media.