Dear readers,
I want to use this particular blog entry to point out a very serious development in the U.S.A. (mostly Texas, to be accurate). As many of you know I'm a very selective reader of media, but important things hopefully don't escape my attention. Of course you could argue, that something like an 'importan thing' is hard to objectify BUT this matter is a matter of the heart and it should touch anyone since it is about the future of children. This is a point, where I need to become political. I'd like you to share a bit of your time, I know we all have our own issues, but I feel the dimension of this might be bigger, than you might perceive at first sight.
Ending my introduction I wanna come straight to the point and highly recommend reading this article, that covers a variety of issues related to public school and focuses on the current law enforcement in public schools (mostly) in Texas. Below you can find my own comment on it:
Some of these stories seem hardly believable, but just considering all the sources, that were mentioned, are possibly very much true. I'd dare a police officer to come into my classroom or attack any of 'my' kids. Isn't it enough of a fight to go to puberty without being damaged - is it really necessary to start war in schools?
After reading this I was glad, that I grew up in a liberal environment. We swore all we wanted, we were sometimes disrespectful to teachers (often with feeling a pang of conscience). I was in 10th grade, when Columbine happened, one year after I left school there was Erfurt, but those are single incidents (even if they are particularly gruesome and tragic) - you cannot punish a whole generation for them and it seems to me that this is happening right now in the U.S. Being the hopeless optimist I am, there can be sensed some light in this rather horrible debate, when you read the particular opinions you see that people are aware of the complexity of the situation. In my opinion the problem is, that there was a process set in motion some years ago, that gained momentum and is hard to stop, maybe to redirect. And there NEEDS to be redirection, otherwise the creative energy and lifeforce of thousands of children is going to be in grave danger.
What I can do from here is to try to reach out to you, my family and friends and other readers and try to raise some awareness, because even we might not have private police in public schools in Germany, we have similar problems to solve, as there is immigration and its consequences on the educational system, the general rougher climate that the children of today have to face etc. There are hard times, but I still believe that communication is a key to solving many issues and it often starts with simple gestures.
I sometimes had to remove a student from the group I was teaching for some time, not to punish him or her, but to help him work out the emotional turmoil (which was merely triggered during my lesson, but the causes were found within his legasthenia and the resulting problems in school. I had quite a few talks with him and we went from distance to a respectful working climate within a year. He realized, that I valued his feelings, but that I cannot let them disrupt the other students from learning. I set him up in another room, and gave him some individual work which he always solved. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm a fan of outcasting, quite the opposite, this strategy rather helped integrating him. I have to mention that quite a few of my students are facing ADD/ADHD and/or legasthenia. At some point in time he told me, that he liked my lesson, which basically meant that he was able to motivate himself to work in this particular environment and really made my day then. As a teacher I feel that is my responsibility to take certain measures to ensure the quality of my lessons for my students as well as to try my utmost to integrate each and everyone. I'm going to stop now, because I'm definitely going to research this area a lot more in my bachelor thesis. Thank you for your attention, if you want to comment, discuss or share the article or my comment on it, feel free!
The next weeks will be mostly spent with revision, there are two final exams coming, one is on the 19th, the other one on the 24th. Good news, I received two very good markings (again) on two presentations, one on a group presentation about "Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios", the other on the pitch of a (fictional) product. I'm still working hard, but also taking my time chatting with some newly found friends and generally trying to enjoy my last weeks here.
GERMAN VERSION COMING UP SOON!
I want to use this particular blog entry to point out a very serious development in the U.S.A. (mostly Texas, to be accurate). As many of you know I'm a very selective reader of media, but important things hopefully don't escape my attention. Of course you could argue, that something like an 'importan thing' is hard to objectify BUT this matter is a matter of the heart and it should touch anyone since it is about the future of children. This is a point, where I need to become political. I'd like you to share a bit of your time, I know we all have our own issues, but I feel the dimension of this might be bigger, than you might perceive at first sight.
Ending my introduction I wanna come straight to the point and highly recommend reading this article, that covers a variety of issues related to public school and focuses on the current law enforcement in public schools (mostly) in Texas. Below you can find my own comment on it:
Some of these stories seem hardly believable, but just considering all the sources, that were mentioned, are possibly very much true. I'd dare a police officer to come into my classroom or attack any of 'my' kids. Isn't it enough of a fight to go to puberty without being damaged - is it really necessary to start war in schools?
After reading this I was glad, that I grew up in a liberal environment. We swore all we wanted, we were sometimes disrespectful to teachers (often with feeling a pang of conscience). I was in 10th grade, when Columbine happened, one year after I left school there was Erfurt, but those are single incidents (even if they are particularly gruesome and tragic) - you cannot punish a whole generation for them and it seems to me that this is happening right now in the U.S. Being the hopeless optimist I am, there can be sensed some light in this rather horrible debate, when you read the particular opinions you see that people are aware of the complexity of the situation. In my opinion the problem is, that there was a process set in motion some years ago, that gained momentum and is hard to stop, maybe to redirect. And there NEEDS to be redirection, otherwise the creative energy and lifeforce of thousands of children is going to be in grave danger.
What I can do from here is to try to reach out to you, my family and friends and other readers and try to raise some awareness, because even we might not have private police in public schools in Germany, we have similar problems to solve, as there is immigration and its consequences on the educational system, the general rougher climate that the children of today have to face etc. There are hard times, but I still believe that communication is a key to solving many issues and it often starts with simple gestures.
I sometimes had to remove a student from the group I was teaching for some time, not to punish him or her, but to help him work out the emotional turmoil (which was merely triggered during my lesson, but the causes were found within his legasthenia and the resulting problems in school. I had quite a few talks with him and we went from distance to a respectful working climate within a year. He realized, that I valued his feelings, but that I cannot let them disrupt the other students from learning. I set him up in another room, and gave him some individual work which he always solved. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm a fan of outcasting, quite the opposite, this strategy rather helped integrating him. I have to mention that quite a few of my students are facing ADD/ADHD and/or legasthenia. At some point in time he told me, that he liked my lesson, which basically meant that he was able to motivate himself to work in this particular environment and really made my day then. As a teacher I feel that is my responsibility to take certain measures to ensure the quality of my lessons for my students as well as to try my utmost to integrate each and everyone. I'm going to stop now, because I'm definitely going to research this area a lot more in my bachelor thesis. Thank you for your attention, if you want to comment, discuss or share the article or my comment on it, feel free!
The next weeks will be mostly spent with revision, there are two final exams coming, one is on the 19th, the other one on the 24th. Good news, I received two very good markings (again) on two presentations, one on a group presentation about "Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios", the other on the pitch of a (fictional) product. I'm still working hard, but also taking my time chatting with some newly found friends and generally trying to enjoy my last weeks here.
GERMAN VERSION COMING UP SOON!
