Over the fabulous weekend of the fourth I was finally able to finish the book! Airplane reading for the win! My first thought after finishing this book? WOW, she was not kidding when she talked about hard questions. Over the course of my flight to and from Boston, I had to find many items to use as bookmarks for the second half of the book. SO many words of wisdom have inspired me and caused me to reflect upon my philosophies in education.
Previously Nathan talked about the RICO framework and the portfolios that are used to evaluate students. In this assessment, students create their own goals and these students assess whether they have met their own goals. Not only does this create intrinsic motivation, but this causes students to become more comfortable with giving and receiving feedback, which is on of the most important skills in the workforce today.
For example, in my current job, I am coming upon mid summer evaluations for all eighteen to twenty of my staff; this is by far the largest unit in camp, and more evaluations than any other member of leadership. As I hold each evaluation in my hand, I think about what I have been able to observe, each staff member's strengths, personality, areas of improvement, and the activity this person was hired to run. How am I going to give each individual feedback that will encourage and challenge them? Have I spent enough time observing each individual? Have I learned how to create feedback into a loop so that all staff see work as a learning experience and a team collaboration for everyone? Will my staff receive this feedback with professional receptivity? All of these questions weigh heavily on my mind; I've never had to give honest feedback to a team of staff before, and thankfully most all of my staff have been impressing me so most all of these evaluations will be positive with one or two suggestions for improvement. But what about the future, when the situation is different, or when they evaluate me?
Due to my first year in a leadership and administrative role, I have truly appreciated the insight that Nathan provides about being in an administrative role, being open to criticism, leading discussions among staff, hearing feedback, and making some mistakes that we cannot fix without time, love, and intentional apologies. Any leader will make a mistake at some point, and Nathan's openness and honesty has left me feeling more willing to make leaps of faith that may result in mistakes that can eventually cause a positive change in the future.
The most fabulous part of the book for me was how she put words to the many issues that I have seen and meditated upon in the course of my classroom experiences in undergrad and graduate school. One of the greatest issues that Nathan brings up, race, is the issue I am most interested in, yet as she has observed, one of the issues that few professionals wish to engage with in the workplace. In all honesty, I see a broken system where selective segregation in the housing market and local taxes have the greatest impact on local school inequality. While this is separated by class, these decisions of where to live are also based upon race, and living in a "nice" neighborhood for those who can afford that luxury. How is it that these subconscious attitudes are still overlooked and understated by modern professionals, when there are clear indications that the current systems in place prevents lower class Americans from accessing education? Now, this is not intentional. No one has set out to make sure that certain races live in one area and all attend the same school, and that these schools in lower areas do not have highly qualified teachers. Humans are simply creatures of habit and of comfort, and are in desperate need of reflection and challenges that cause us to think out of the box and step into another perspective. One article that I read recently suggested that America invests in more magnet schools that can pull from mixed neighborhoods, or districts that integrate lower and middle classes with upper classes whenever possible. Both of these options may prove helpful in that students will have access and students will come into contact with more diverse students, which can increase their awareness and empathy towards others.
The tracking, poverty, social issues, and the inequality that exists in every classroom cannot be undone or voted away by heroic teachers alone, and the issues can no longer be overlooked by the populace if we claim to hold to such values as accessible education for all or equal opportunities. She advocates for the students that cannot speak for themselves because of a system that is not responsive to the needs of the students, yet is quick to blame parents or students when a problem may lie in the lack of real resources for these families.
One of the resources that Dr. Nathan mentions pertains to the knowledge that middle class families have when applying for financial aid and gaining access into the higher education system. I love her idea that open doors does not always mean easy access, or ready access, for those without resources at their disposal. Many lower class families and first generation college students hit road blocks that teachers would not anticipate because no one if the child's family has ever filled out a FAFSA form or learned about deadlines. I love the idea that teachers need to check up on students who may not know what they are doing and helping them with every step of the way, so that a child with college dreams and college abilities no longer miss out for lack of forethought.
This factor is another reason that urban education is more time consuming and intensive than education in middle-class America. Urban educators must go above and beyond, and cannot assume what students know or do not know. And this is one reason that I aspire to become an urban educator for children with special needs. Hopefully one day I can look back and know that I was an advocate for students who were predicted to fail, and these students succeeded.
Previously Nathan talked about the RICO framework and the portfolios that are used to evaluate students. In this assessment, students create their own goals and these students assess whether they have met their own goals. Not only does this create intrinsic motivation, but this causes students to become more comfortable with giving and receiving feedback, which is on of the most important skills in the workforce today.
For example, in my current job, I am coming upon mid summer evaluations for all eighteen to twenty of my staff; this is by far the largest unit in camp, and more evaluations than any other member of leadership. As I hold each evaluation in my hand, I think about what I have been able to observe, each staff member's strengths, personality, areas of improvement, and the activity this person was hired to run. How am I going to give each individual feedback that will encourage and challenge them? Have I spent enough time observing each individual? Have I learned how to create feedback into a loop so that all staff see work as a learning experience and a team collaboration for everyone? Will my staff receive this feedback with professional receptivity? All of these questions weigh heavily on my mind; I've never had to give honest feedback to a team of staff before, and thankfully most all of my staff have been impressing me so most all of these evaluations will be positive with one or two suggestions for improvement. But what about the future, when the situation is different, or when they evaluate me?
Due to my first year in a leadership and administrative role, I have truly appreciated the insight that Nathan provides about being in an administrative role, being open to criticism, leading discussions among staff, hearing feedback, and making some mistakes that we cannot fix without time, love, and intentional apologies. Any leader will make a mistake at some point, and Nathan's openness and honesty has left me feeling more willing to make leaps of faith that may result in mistakes that can eventually cause a positive change in the future.
The most fabulous part of the book for me was how she put words to the many issues that I have seen and meditated upon in the course of my classroom experiences in undergrad and graduate school. One of the greatest issues that Nathan brings up, race, is the issue I am most interested in, yet as she has observed, one of the issues that few professionals wish to engage with in the workplace. In all honesty, I see a broken system where selective segregation in the housing market and local taxes have the greatest impact on local school inequality. While this is separated by class, these decisions of where to live are also based upon race, and living in a "nice" neighborhood for those who can afford that luxury. How is it that these subconscious attitudes are still overlooked and understated by modern professionals, when there are clear indications that the current systems in place prevents lower class Americans from accessing education? Now, this is not intentional. No one has set out to make sure that certain races live in one area and all attend the same school, and that these schools in lower areas do not have highly qualified teachers. Humans are simply creatures of habit and of comfort, and are in desperate need of reflection and challenges that cause us to think out of the box and step into another perspective. One article that I read recently suggested that America invests in more magnet schools that can pull from mixed neighborhoods, or districts that integrate lower and middle classes with upper classes whenever possible. Both of these options may prove helpful in that students will have access and students will come into contact with more diverse students, which can increase their awareness and empathy towards others.
The tracking, poverty, social issues, and the inequality that exists in every classroom cannot be undone or voted away by heroic teachers alone, and the issues can no longer be overlooked by the populace if we claim to hold to such values as accessible education for all or equal opportunities. She advocates for the students that cannot speak for themselves because of a system that is not responsive to the needs of the students, yet is quick to blame parents or students when a problem may lie in the lack of real resources for these families.
One of the resources that Dr. Nathan mentions pertains to the knowledge that middle class families have when applying for financial aid and gaining access into the higher education system. I love her idea that open doors does not always mean easy access, or ready access, for those without resources at their disposal. Many lower class families and first generation college students hit road blocks that teachers would not anticipate because no one if the child's family has ever filled out a FAFSA form or learned about deadlines. I love the idea that teachers need to check up on students who may not know what they are doing and helping them with every step of the way, so that a child with college dreams and college abilities no longer miss out for lack of forethought.
This factor is another reason that urban education is more time consuming and intensive than education in middle-class America. Urban educators must go above and beyond, and cannot assume what students know or do not know. And this is one reason that I aspire to become an urban educator for children with special needs. Hopefully one day I can look back and know that I was an advocate for students who were predicted to fail, and these students succeeded.
