Post 3:The Relationship between Schools and Home

Post 3: The Relationship between Schools and Home

Throughout my teaching career, I have noticed a correlation between a student’s socioeconomic background and the extent to which I am supported by their parents to discipline or correct student behaviors in my classroom. My class rosters reflect a fairly even mix of Asian, African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic students from a wide range of socioeconomic statuses. Thankfully, I do not encounter many behavioral problems, but I have faced typical issues with student cell phone use, disrespect, or lack of responsibility. Throughout the academic year I have many opportunities to meet my students’ parents and doing so adds to my understanding of the student as a person. Interactions with parents typically occur at our Parent Open House in August and the parent-teacher conferences held in October and February. Additionally, I seem to be in constant communication with many of them via Infinite Campus (our online grading portal) or email. Though these encounters are brief and somewhat impersonal, they do provide a snapshot of a students’ relationship with their parents and the styling of parenting used at home. They also give me a sense of how much backing the parents give the educator in the event that their child's behavior needs to be corrected. Of course, my observations are merely generalizations within my own context and do not apply to every family, but I have found that quite frequently lower income families more willingly support the teacher’s class expectations and encourage discipline in the classroom. For example, they will say things to me at conferences such as, “Feel free to takeaway his cell phone” or “If she’s ever not doing what she needs to for class, call me and we will change that.” Discussing a child’s cell phone use, or any other behavioral issue, with students and parents with higher incomes can also result in such comments and parental support. However, I can recount conversations of my own and those of colleagues during which parents of a higher economic standing have resisted suggestions for behavior correction. For example, a few years ago during a parent-teacher conference,  a teacher friend of mine shared with a parent that her daughter spends a lot of class time on her phone sending text messages. The mother was baffled by this revelation and told the teacher it cannot be true because her daughter turns her phone off during class. The teacher went on to assure the parent that yes, her daughter does use her phone during class time and the phone is on. No matter, this parent insisted that this could not be the case and that the teacher must have confused her with a different girl. When reflecting on this, and incorporating the economic side of the matter, I wonder if this is because those parents who have resources, time, and money to dedicate to the rearing of their children feel they are solely responsible for their moral and behavioral development. On the contrary, those families with parents who work multiple jobs acknowledge their absence at home, value discipline in their absence and as a result encourage teachers to fill-in as parent during school hours. This theory somewhat aligns with the development of Montessori education, where the school is viewed as an extension of home and the teachers an extension of parental figures to help shape young lives.

This is interesting to consider--is it appropriate to view one’s teacher as an extension of one’s parent in terms of behavioral coach? The answer to this can be tricky, especially when parents and teachers do not share the same values. There are, I might argue, a set of certain valued behaviors that one needs in order to function well in society, and I am of the opinion that these should be taught, developed, and applied at school in order to properly prepare students for the real world. Connected to this idea, I highlighted the following from page 20 as I was reading The Schoolhome: “When and only when there was a “harmonious interaction” between individual and environment, she said, would the child develop normally and love flourish” (Martin, p. 20, 1992). This made me think about my classroom as a sphere of many differentiated individuals whose minds and moral compasses are developing simultaneously and differently with the academic and behavioral guidance of their educators in order to prepare them to successfully join society. In other words, students “[…] need to learn to live in this world, not just know about it” (Martin, p. 86, 1992).

This topic of student behavior is timely, as just this morning I attended a back-to-school workshop pertaining to our school’s behavioral model. This year our discipline committee introduced Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) as our official behavioral model. As the name implies, it focuses on students’ positive behaviors and encourages teachers to use common jargon that ingrains the code of conduct for its students. Our key words this year are Respectful, Responsible, and Ready. Each teacher was given a poster with these terms and were asked to spend one of the first days of class brainstorming with kids what these terms look like within our specific classrooms. This activity allows them to take ownership of the school’s expectations and qualify them for a particular context, which I think will make a difference in how we approach student behaviors this year. I am curious to know whether anyone else has had experience with this model and whether or not it has proved successful. I know for a large population of kids, it is essential that they are taught how to behave. Too often as high school teachers we assume behavioral education takes place in the lower grades and is not necessary in the teenage years, however students are constantly developing and so too should their understanding of appropriate behavior. 

Sharing:

https://www.pbis.org/ 

For more information about the PBIS behavioral model, please visit this website.

http://sugarspiceandglitter.com/montessori-blogs/
http://montessoritraining.blogspot.com/
http://www.onlinedegreeprograms.com/blog/2010/50-must-read-montessori-blogs/

To provide additional views of Montessori education, please explore the blog web addresses above. I do not have my own young children and I teach at the high school level so I found many of these accounts to be interesting and informative. 

http://www.montessori-namta.org--www.montessori-namta.org/PDF/rathundeframework.pdf

For a look at the evolution and development of Montessori education, click this link.