Reply to Soaring Child Poverty in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][/quote]

Really?!  So the argument here is that poor kids can't learn from good teachers OR excel in school via self-motivation?  Should we just throw in the towel, then?! While child poverty has been associated with lower academic achievement, I would ask you to please cite one study that shows that [i]all[/i] children living in poverty are under-performing.  Teachers SHOULD take responsibility for all of their students, regardless of socio-economic status.  It is an educator's ethical responsibility to take each student as a whole child (family situation, socio-economic status, culture, customs, and background included) and discover the genius within.  Obviously teachers can't save the world, but to infer that a child is simply uneducable because he/she is poor is giving up, and it's just plain insulting.  If a teacher doesn't believe in his/her under-served/privileged student, who will??[/quote]

No - that's your argument -- that anyone who mentions the role of childhood poverty is throwing in the towel. It's your excuse for not listening and going into the reform diatribe in which you come out caring about all children and anyone who comments on poverty is a dolt.

Yes - of course teachers should take responsibility for all their students, but what does that mean?  making them all learn at high levels all the time? impossible - all kids aren't alike, irrespective of poverty level.  It's a total abnegation of responsibility to heap an impossible burden on one piece of the education equation.

Thanks for laying out your thoughts though -- it helps to see the depths of your indoctrination.

Nobody but you is inferring that  poor children are ineducable -- it's the trick of people like you to shut out anything that doesn't fit in your narrow, indoctrinated view of education. I hope there are not too many people like that left at DCPS.[/quote]

1.  Of course poverty has to be mentioned - that is part of recognizing and valuing who the child is walking through the classroom door.
2.  No, not all children will perform across the board at "high levels" (whatever that means...), but each child does have some inner genius waiting to be discovered.  Perhaps he is an exceptional painter, or she is a whiz at mechanics, or has a real knack for geography or .... (hopefully you get my point).  Whatever a child's strength may be, it is a teacher's responsibility to help nurture that genius and encourage the child toward success.
3.  Exactly - all kids are not alike (not all rich children are high achievers, and not all poor children are low achievers).  Thank you for echoing my point.  We can't pigeon-hole a child because of where they come from any better than we can "track" a child based on a single assessment. 
4.  How easy for you to comment on my "indoctrination" on an anonymous forum.  Need I remind you that you don't know any more about my background or experience than I do about yours, so please refrain from trying to read between the lines or putting words into my mouth.  I don't play "tricks", as you say, I just have more faith in children's potential than you care to express.

Thank you and have a pleasant day.[/quote]

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