I have already written a bit on this subject as a post to a classmate, but I will recap that post here. I have been able to observe the effect a family can have on a child’s education first hand. I worked primarily with the same two boys over the course of my tutoring; a boy named Mick and another named Ned. In the beginning, I thought that Ned would be the one to make dramatic improvements due to his interest in learning and his focused work ethic. Mick was a very active student, who could hardly sit still long enough to look at the words in front of him. However, as the months went by I realized that my initial assessments would be off. Ned was very quiet and needed relentless encouragement to begin an activity, but once he got into it he was more than excited to be a part of it. The problem came in the growing number of absences he had, as well as, the growing number of partial days. Through my conversations with the teacher I began to understand it as a family matter. I don’t know what the particulars of his situation are at home, but I do know that he will be repeating first grade because he has fallen so far behind. I also know that the teacher now shrugs her shoulders at the coaches that come in to help him. I think this is because it has been an ongoing issue and she’s been unable to get them on the same page as far as schooling is concerned. It kills me because he is always asking questions about word meanings and usually asks me if I can give him an example. He picks up on it so quick and makes sentences with the words to show me that he gets it. His excitement and curiosity for it make me wonder why every time we meet, the first five minutes is always spent getting him to be an active participant. I don’t know the situation, but I do know that he isn’t getting the education he needs and deserves. I wonder how it affects his view of schooling since he is so young. It seems to be of a secondary concern to his family so is that why I always have to pull that desire out of him?
The opposite has been true of Mick who is about to become a big brother. He is always talking about his family and the stories that his mother reads to him at home. He tells me that he reads to the baby in her tummy. He has made such a dramatic improvement in both behavior and reading. The teacher has even commented on the drastic difference between the guessing he was doing at the beginning of the sessions to the actual reading and self-correcting he is doing now. I believe these two incidents to be monumental in showing the effect a family can have in their child’s education. Thus, it’s imperative to find ways to work cooperatively with families.
My teacher writes notes back and forth that go with the child’s homework assignments. They are written in the language familiar to the parents and responded to for the next day. Though in all other situations, such as in the case of Ned I am not sure what steps, if any, were taken.
I can see issues being things such as time, money, differing cultural values, transportation, awareness, and language. I think that most of these are more or less workable to accommodate the needs of the parents for the benefit of the child. Though the difference in what is valued may be very challenging. If the family doesn’t hold education as a priority, how to you get them to see it as one?
I think Brown would say that there needs to be cooperation and understanding between families and educators because the student is the middle man who ends up carrying the burden if an understanding is not met. Her article dealing with misunderstandings between teachers and students stemmed from assumptions. The girls were misunderstood because their teachers made assumptions about their backgrounds. The teachers assigned and labeled the girls without even knowing them. Therefore it is imperative that we work with families to understand where a student is coming from in order to set up a cooperative and unassuming school environment. Everyone is different and we need to start accounting for that, whether it is making accommodations for the student or for the family.
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