Since January I have been a student in the class Critical and Cultural Perspectives in Education. As a student in this class, I have participated in discussions, read many articles, written papers, completed observations and interviews, and created a tutorial for my peers. All of these activities have forced me to look closely at education, government, and our society. The course focused on the question: what is the role of education in a democratic society?
Within this class, I participated in a class book discussion. The book I was assigned to read was titled Ability Profiling and School Failure: One Child’s Struggle to Be Seen as Competent written by Kathleen M. Collins. This book follows the life of one boy as he struggles to fit in and make progress within public education. This book really highlighted for me how we are failing many of our students. Our current education system is just not set up to meet everyone’s needs. We as educators need to examine the current education system and work together to make a truly inclusive learning environment. Collins (2013) writes, “A disability may be a better display board for the weakness of a culture than it is an account of a real person”(p. 2). We are so quick to label our students, but we are not working hard enough to meet their many needs. We are not taking the times as a culture to get to know our students, so that we can really help them succeed.
Through this class I was able to spend time observing and interviewing a social service employee. She works for the Howard Center in their Autism Spectrum Program. While spending time on my inquiry project, I focused on this question: How does the work of the human service professional serve the aims of democracy? From my research, I came to the conclusion that social service agencies help to keep democracy running in a number of ways. They help individuals build skills, so that they may be independent and participate within a democratic society. They also advocates, helping to protect the rights of the individuals they support. They teach their clients how to advocate for themselves and they also advocate for those who are not able.
While researching the Howard Center, I saw how many individuals and families their many programs help. I also know that even with all the Howard Center and other agencies are doing, it is still not enough to conquer the poverty and needs within Vermont and within our country as a whole. How are children supposed to come to school and learn when they are more concerned about their basic needs being met? Without a good education and a positive set of skills, people will continue to struggle to live and the circle of poverty will continue.
This class has made me reflect on the many things that can affect a child’s development and overall life. The one factor that has the biggest influence is poverty. Everything seems to come back to poverty. If parents do not have good jobs then they do not earn enough money. If a family doesn’t have enough money then children can lack food, positive attention, safety, housing, healthcare, and a good education. Poverty has a negative impact on a child’s life, and it is a never-ending circle for many families. However, as country we don’t seem to be doing enough to solve this problem. Many people in our country spend too much time blaming each other and not enough time looking at themselves and really thinking about what they could do to help our country be more successful.
As an educator, I think the most important thing I will take away from this class is that there are so many factors and influences in a child’s life. As a teacher, you can’t be aware of all of them. However, as educators we must really work to get to know our students are learners and as people. We should talk to them about their home lives, their dreams, and their worries. If a child in my class is worried about food or safety, I can’t expect them to be fully available for learning. I must give them extra support to try and help balance out the insecurities they are feeling in their lives outside of school.
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