Blog 8

The chapter brought up many interesting and sad realities of schools and families. It is unfortunate that schools are not communicating with parents in ways that are appropriate for the parents. School officials believed a stereotype and that stopped them from communicating with a parent who actually did show concern in her child. It is sad that there are teachers and school officials who do not care about students or their parents. It is also sad that a person’s dialect is judged and looked down upon. I have seen this happen before to people who have moved her from another country. My mom has a Dutch accent when she speaks and sometimes people act rude around her. I think that is bad enough. However, it is also terrible that people from the same country make fun of people because of an accent. People are being judged and ignored instead of being helped.
            I am in the class Understanding Language this semester and I am learning that there are different dialects. However, there is not one dialect of English that is superior to another. Unfortunately this theory is not carried out in real life practice. People judge other people just because of the way they speak. People’s socioeconomic class does seem to affect their literacy. Once again, this is so sad and wrong but it’s true. I mentor in Kankakee and even there I notice a huge difference between students’ sociopolitical and socioeconomic lives and their reading levels. Teachers must understand that poor children still need to and want to learn in school and it is the teacher’s job to teach them. Poverty can no longer be an excuse to why students can’t learn how to read and write. Students should also be able to use their language or form of dialect to learn. This will help them get into the reading and literacy world. The other chapter also talked about pushing poor children to do their best. I agree that teachers must push students and they cannot let students give up in the classroom. Teachers need to hold high expectations for all students in the classroom regardless of race or socioeconomic reasons.