In this article a group of professors followed a young student by the name of Esme. She is a Latina student in America but her heritage and home was Mexico. This article shows the struggles of Spanish speaking students in America and how they are developmentally behind in school to American standards. I really enjoyed reading this article. It reminded me of the Rodriguez piece we read earlier in the semester. Esme strived to well in school but some of the teachers didn't really understand how to teach her. This happens a lot in schools and teachers do not focus enough on some of the other students and they loose interest and get frustrated which Esme did early in her schooling. She wasn't confident to ask questions because she never really was given answers and that is how she defined teachers. It wasn't until 7th and 8th grade that she became more aware of better teachers. It was because she was placed in different classes or what they call resource classes. The teachers here helped her more and taught her how do things rather than assuming she knew these things. The resource classes helped Esme tremendously but it made her put a label on herself as if she wasn't in "regular" classes. She understood she needed these classes but also understood that she needed to more to make something of herself. Now what happened to her in high school I didn't like. She was in three AP classes and she was doing well in two of them and struggling in the math class. Now I agree with her taking herself out of the AP math class because she didn't fully understand it in the first place, could she have gotten yes probably but because she struggled from the beginning I think it was good for her to go down and pass the "regular" math class. Now for the other two AP classes she was doing fine but the first sign of struggle she wanted to move down because she knew she could do it, but at the same time she wanted to stay up in the class too and if the teachers motivated her a little more to do better I think she would have done fine. But because there was no motivation for her that she could do it she was fine with moving down. I get so angry by this because as teachers they are supposed to bring the best out of children or at least try and encourage them to do better and make them feel like you are in their corner to succeed. This didn't happen for her. They also touch on the need to fit in in high school and Esme really wanted to make sure she fit in. The pressures to fit in are so bad today but she really adjusted to it and didn't let it effect her school work.
I love the shift in her speaking. You could really tell throughout the article that she was getting better at speaking in English. We also saw the shift in believing in herself which is exciting. She first thought that college wasn't an obtainable goal for and as the article went on she really wanted to go to college and knew she could. What I hate is that test that are mandated by the states. Even though Esme was passing her classes and getting involved in school she still couldn't pass the TASK's and hadn't when she moved, and it said she wouldn't be able to graduate because of them. I think that's awful because sometimes people do not test well or have other issues or even these tests are just hard in general and they make it very hard almost like they are weeding children out. At the end of the article I enjoyed reading that Esme was doing to the cosmetology program so that she has a skill to have but wanted to go to college and use cosmetology to work while in school to provide assistance to her parents to help pay for it and to have money for herself.
In conclusion I had my likes about the article but it made me think about what we are doing inside our school systems to really help children. I know that I never want to discourage a student away from doing better for him or herself. I also hate the standardize testing and I wish I knew how to go about changing this stuff because it really bothers me that it sets kids up to fail or that's what it seems like it does. My goal is to push children to their full potential and to believe in them in whatever it is that they do or what to do.
My question for the class is: Social status in school is important to kids. How important do you think it is? What were some of your experiences with fitting in? How would you teach children to either fit in or not to worry about it?
This is amazing Mike. "I also hate the standardize testing and I wish I knew how to go about changing this stuff because it really bothers me that it sets kids up to fail or that's what it seems like it does. My goal is to push children to their full potential and to believe in them in whatever it is that they do or what to do." I cannot stand standardized testing. I do not think that it is an accurate depiction of what students do or do not know at all. What about the students who are not good test takers? Does that automatically make them dumb because they don't score well? You can't graduate if you don't pass this test. And without this test, good luck getting into college. Can we also talk about how ridiculous it is that you have to PAY to take some standardized tests like AP, SAT, etc.? How's that for putting some students at a disadvantage.
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