DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...:

Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...

BAN KI-MOON

Many times we allow stereotypes to rule our perceptions of others, whether it's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. We allow these perceptions to cloud our judgment, and we make decisions based on these misconceptions. We believe if it is true of one, it is true of all. How unfair to the students who walk into our classrooms every day.

A child "living in poverty" seems to be a hot button issue right now, and rightly so. But how much do we let the fact that any of our students are living in poverty affect how we relate to them? How does the fact that our students are living in poverty, change the way we teach ALL of our students?

I'm just thinking out loud. We need to make sure that we put the "brush" away, and see our students as individuals, and not a statistic.

Just because they are living in poverty, it does not mean that:

• we should not have high expectations of them, and only expect minimum effort.
• their mother is an addict, Dad is absent, and no one has a job.
• they can't read, write, or do math.
• they can'tDIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Just Because Our Students Are Living in Poverty...: