Disparities in Children

     Besides money, how are our students different? Just like no two finger prints are alike, no two children are alike. They differ in a variety of ways. Our students differ in their access to quality health care, their access to technology, their access to quality food, and the role models in their lives. These are but a few disparities our children face. Health care is a major focus right now in our country, but I am not going to get into the political aspects of our health care system. I work with students that have medical issues such as ADHD,  ODD, and Bipolar Disorder but are not receiving their medication because the parent cannot afford it or they parent has been denied medical insurance. I also deal with students who have the characteristics of one of these disorders but the parent cannot see a doctor because they don't have medical insurance. These conditions being left unmedicated and undiagnosed are having an impact on student academic and social success in school. It breaks my heart to see students with rotting teeth in their mouths. Studies have found that your health begins with your mouth. Improper oral care can lead to other health problems including heart disease. I ask students with poor oral care when they are going to the dentist and the general response I get is, "My mom doesn't have any money."
     Student access to technology differs greatly. Many students have access to technology in the form of cable/satellite television,  game consoles, and cell phones, but they don't have access to quality technology instruction. Even in schools, students differ in their use of technology. Some students are still using computers to learn how to type instead of learning how to create interactive presentations. There are major disparities in the quality of computers that students have access to on a daily basis. The newer the school in a district, the more likelihood students will have access to quality computer systems. The lower income areas which tend to have the older schools, therefore older technology, cannot be neglected. The students especially in these schools need access to quality technology instruction.
     Our students also differ in their access to quality food. It is more expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat processed foods with low nutritional value. How do we change this as leaders in education? I'm not quite sure other than to educate our parents and students more about what they are eating. Classes can be given at the school on nutrition should be available to parents. Why not utilize local resources such as fitness centers and community park services to come in and talk with students about the importance of proper nutrition and exercise. We need to reexamine what we are feeding our students. If I eat the school lunch I am ready to crash from the amount of carbohydrates in the food. Are processed chicken rings and beef fingers the best we can serve our students?
     The final area that I want to address is the disparity our students face when it comes to their role models. Our students are influenced by a number of forces to include family, church, school, media, and peers. As educators we can only control our influence on students when they are in our care. Are we doing our best to model for students how we want them to conduct themselves as adults? I can clearly remember a lesson I learned when I student taught eleven years ago. I was in a fourth grade class therefore, the chairs weren't very tall and with me being long legged I just stepped over the chair and sat down. I didn't think it was a big deal but my cooperating teacher corrected my improper seating technique. She told me that our students watch everything we do and we are their model for how they should conduct themselves. I learned a great deal from that simple lesson and it has served me well over the years. When I see a teacher yelling at a student and getting into his/her personal space, I ask them, "Is that how you are going to expect this student to handle conflict resolution with other children and when they are an adult?" I have found that students want the same thing we want, respect. Like the old adage goes, It takes respect to get it. Check out this video about respect.

 Respect Video
 

Diversity in Education

Diversity is such a broad term in education. There are multiple forms of diversity that present challenges to leaders in education. Diversity can come in the form of cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and technological, just to name a few. The connectedness of the world due to globalization is forcing the United States to address these various forms of diversity to ensure that we are helping the leaders of tomorrow to be prepared for the future. The Department of Education recognizes this need. This quote is from the Department of Education website: "Relatively few minority students choose to engage in academic programs that provide the requisite training for careers in international service. Yet in order for the U.S. to more effectively serve as a leader in today's world, it is important that this diversity is represented in government and the foreign service, as well as in the education, business and non-profit sectors. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is seeking to increase minority representation in internationally-focused careers and classrooms." As leaders in education, it is crucial that we recognize the forces impacting our world, which should guide how we improve our education system. How can we help our students to be prepared for a globalized future? We have to recognize that our world is changing and realize that we should be leaders in the globalization process. Our students should become aware of our global society at an early age. They should be learning about other countries, explore the possibilities of technology, and engage in service projects that bring awareness to global issues. We should be teaching our young children a foreign language from the time they walk through the doors of our schools. We have the ability to determine the leading languages which will benefit our youth in the future. Other countries recognize this need and teach their young students English. Our secondary students need intense career training. They need to know what types of jobs will be in demand in the future and what is takes to do these jobs. Taking a personality test on the computer and choosing from a list of careers that match their personality is not going to cut it. The health of our country is dependent on recognizing the many diverse issues facing our education system and helping our youth survive in a world very different from the past.  

Leading with Faith

Leading in an ever changing world requires a great deal of courage and responsibility. I do my best each day to serve those I work with and educate through the philosophy of servant leadership. I see an even greater need for positive role models for our students. The accessibility to information and the numerous influences on their developing ethical base is very concerning to me. When I was an adolescent, my mother who is a devout Catholic, often told me, "there will be people out there who will try to influence you and change who you are as a person. You have to be strong and stick to your faith." I realize more and more as educators we are in a war against negative influence which bombards our students on a daily basis through media, music, and the Internet. We have to be ever diligent in helping students become ethical thinkers and strong enough to stand up for what is right. My job requires that I speak to students on a daily basis about what is right and wrong. We can't get tired of talking to our students. My daughter attends private Catholic school where they attend mass weekly and have religious education daily. Is it a guarantee that negative influences will be stopped, no, but she is developing a strong moral base. As educators in public school we cannot take our students to prayer service or teacher religious education but we can teach ethical thinking, servitude, and citizenship. They need our guidance and we need them to develop into strong citizens who will someday lead this country. I pray for our students and hope that God will guide them to a life filled with blessings.

Thinking Globally

The need for citizenship training in schools focused on the diversity of our world is greater than ever. Unfotunately most schools ignore the need for teaching their students about globalization. Link on to the article to read more about the need for global ciitizenship training in schools. I have also included a link to the IB-PYP site which explains the mission of the International Baccolarate Program. I miss the days when I worked at such a school and learned with the students about global issues. My students developed attitudes of collective responsibiliby, a love for the Earth, and an understanding that we are all interconnected in some way.


Global Citizenship
IB - Mission

The Disciplined Mind

I've been thinking about the paper I need to write for class in which I have to discuss what I believe are the most important leadership imperatives for today's leaders. With a daughter in high school, soon to be out on her own in the big world, I constantly think about what she is learning in school. She comes home from school with straight A's in precalculus and other advance placement courses, but the child couldn't figure out how to turn on the shower faucet this weekend when we spent the night in a hotel. I'm afraid she isn't being taught how to think and problem solve. The more I read Five Minds for the Future and chapter 2 in particular, The Disciplined Mind, I can see we are doing our students a disservice. The following statements from Howard Gardner reaffirmed that something has to change in our education system, "The absence of disciplinary thinking matters. Shorn of these sophisticated ways of thinking, individuals remain essentially unschooled - no different, indeed, from uneducated individuals - in how they think of the physical world, the biological world, the world of human beings, the world of imaginative creations, the world of commerce" (p. 36). Changing our schools to help students develop disciplined minds should be at the forefront of educational reform. The major dilemma is how to train teachers and school administrators who lack disciplined minds themselves. We have lived in a world so long in which memorized facts have been enough to get us where we need to be, but the changing dynamic world we are evolving into is going to require a different type of thinking. We all need to work on developing a Disciplined Mind. 

Today's Learners

Are the learners of today very different from learners in the past? I think it really depends on when you yourself was a student in public education. It hasn't been quite that long since I was roaming the halls of Andress High School in El Paso, less than two decades ago. We didn't have the technology that exists today, but we did many of the same things. Students today spend a great deal of time on social networking and websites. It has been found that students are spending just as much time if not more on the computer than watching TV. We use to social network when I was a teen for hours but it was through the telephone and the use of three way calling. You were not in unless you had call waiting and a three-way line. We faced many of the pressures that teens face today, but one of the major differences is the amount of information that is available to the students of today. We learned from older students and the grapevine. All students have to do nowadays is go to Google. It is impossible to keep students from the information so we are going to have to find ways to teach student how to harness the power of the information that is easily accessible. Parents need more information about how to protect their children from the dangers that exist in the digital world. It never dawned on me that my child would create a Facebook page, but she did without my knowledge or consent. Then again, I never told her she couldn't. Instead I should have explain the ramification of putting too much personal information out for people to see and the potential dangers. Schools are constantly looking for ways to reach out to the community in order to increase parental involvement. Creating information sessions for parents about the latest fads such as Facebook, Twitter, and sexting, and ways to be more involved in their child's use of technology could prove to be very beneficial. We have to be more involved in the lives of our students; the potential for danger is just a click away. Take a look at this story about a teen that committed suicide a result of sexting. We have to be more proactive than ever.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29546030