Quotes

Literacy With Attitude

Author: Patrick Finn

1. "One fifth grade teacher said the students needed the basic simple skills, when asked "why?" she responded, "they're lazy, I hate to categorize them but they're lazy."

• This quote stood out to me because growing up in the city and going to public schools I always came across a couple teachers that thought it was "okay" to call me lazy, but in a joking manner, however it was not funny. I felt like at times it put me down especially when I was younger, because at times I really did not know the basics and I needed them to be taught to me in order to understand. Sometimes I had the teachers that would actually teach "the basics" to me and then I had the teachers that would believe that I was being lazy and did not want to learn. The teachers that called me "lazy", in my opinion they were the lazy ones because they did not want to take time out to teach me what I did not understand. 

    2.  "Just do your best. If they learn to add and subtract, that's a bonus. If not don't worry about it."

• This quote caught my attention because it was a shocking moment, a moment where I had to sit and say "WOW, do teachers really think like that?" Its was even more terrible because it was the principal who thought it was fine to say this to a teacher. The head of the school saying this is just ignorant. This quote somewhat upset me because teachers get a degree to teach students and possibly teach them to a point that it could help them in the real world. I know that I would never hear this coming from my old high school principal because she was a principal who worried more about her students than herself. More staff within school communities should be a positive role model like my old principal instead of bringing students down. 

    3.  "I had work assignments on the board when the students entered the classroom, and so there

         wasn't a moment when they didn't have anything to do."

• This quote stood out to me as well because I thought of when i was in high school and my teachers would put up "Do-Nows" on the board, which was an assignment that we had to do within the first 10 minutes of class. Looking back at this now, I feel like this was a good idea especially to get the class start  Instead of having students sitting and waiting for the teacher to be ready and take attendance  the students could be occupied with the "Do-Now" which would start the class discussion

I chose these three quotes to write my blog about because I felt like they all had a meaning and also related to my past experiences in school. One if the quotes I chose was a somewhat negative one, I especially chose that one because we are soon to be teachers and this would be one clear example of how we should NOT think when teaching our students  We shouldn't think of them as "lazy" or not try to teach the students with our best capability of teaching. We should be the teachers that care, and give it our all.

Talking Points: Did this story relate to anyone's experiences in school?