I had the opportunity to begin my volunteer experience today! I am officially a Rolling Reader of Space Coast. My experience is at Endeavour Elementary School in Cocoa. This is a title one school with a population of approx. 850 students. The class that I volunteer to read to every week is a grade 4-6 varying exceptionalities class with 10 students. Today we got to know each other a bit which was fun. I learned a few things last week in my 2 hour training session and a bit today about title 1 schools.
The training session last week taught me that perceptions of poverty are very real and very much alive. When the trainer talked about what it meant to be a title 1 school - certain percent of students on free and reduced lunch - some of the comments included: "that is so sad" and "those poor kids"! It was not my place to say anything but it was difficult not to.
I learned today that funding for title 1 schools allows Endeavour to have 4 full computer labs. This is much different than home as our title 1 schools had less resources than most other schools and not more. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of computer labs, especially after our conversations about the reality of less resources in highly diverse, low socioeconomic schools. I have more learning to do about schools in Florida. I look forward to going back to Endeavour next week to read to the students.
It is pretty interesting that society at large hears "free/reduced lunch" and pities the student, yet in my experience the students themselves don't usually feel deprived. I have to admit that when I first started teaching I too was in a Title 1 school, and I felt a lot of pity for various students due to different situations in their lives. Over the years my reaction has changed from shock and pity to more of a shoulder-shrug. It isn't that I don't care - I truly do with all my heart. But I have realized that pity doesn't do anything to help me help them. To the contrary, sometimes my pity about a student's situation even gets in the way of my ability to help that student gain education and skills to get themselves on a new track in life.
ReplyDeleteI like your philosophy on pity and academic success. I think empathy goes deeper than pity right. The students don't want our pity - they want us to teach them and to care about them while we are doing it. They want to know that we will be consistent, fair, clear in our expectations, and understanding in our actions. Free and reduced lunch status doesn't mean they are pitiful - they just can't afford what someone else might be able to afford. Thanks for weighing in on this Melodie.
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