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School Labels
Like almost everyone else, I believe I was definitely labeled at various times in my
schooling. A few of these labels
included bright, gifted and talented and athletic. I
acquired these labels as I moved from elementary through high school
and spent some
time after my high school graduation dealing with the importance of moving beyond
these labels. I acquired
the labels of bright and gifted and talented as an elementary
school student on the basis of test scores and my academic
performance in school. I
think the impact of this label was both positive and negative. It was positive in the sense
that
it gave me academic confidence, but negative in the sense that it allowed to believe
that I could slide by in school at
times. I think I dropped these certain labels when I
moved to a private school in the 8th grade and came into contact
with a lot of kids as
bright as myself. At that point I adopted the label of athlete. I had always been a good
basketball
player, but as I moved into junior high and high school, sports became more
important and the label athlete became something
I coveted, even more than being
thought of as bright or gifted and talented. Being an athlete was a label that was positive
for my self-esteem, but may have been harmful to me in some ways academically as I
let that label supersede all others,
at times to the detriment of my studies.
Several of my peers had very different schooling experiences and acquired
alternative
labels. I have recently caught up with a former classmate who would have
been labeled as troubled, a dropout and a slow
learner. He was having problems in junior
high. His parents were going through a divorce and he had no guidance at home.
He was
struggling academically as he made the transition into junior high. He came from a fairly
affluent background
where expectations were high. He eventually left our school, got into
drugs and dropped out of sight. He is now a fairly
successful, up and coming rock
musician in California. I think the labels he acquired at our large private christian school
had a negative effect on his education and may have contributed to a lot of the struggles
he had in life at the time.
The labels I acquired in schools were very much indicative of the whole school
context. Each school I attended operated
according to the factory style of management
where the labels I acquired would be good and the labels my friend had would
be
negative. From an early age I was grouped into a category of students thought to be
potentially high achievers.
I suppose the purpose of the grouping was to bring out the
most potential within this group by challenging us with material
outside the normal
curriculum. Students who would have benefited most from these types of school
structures would
have been students with labels such as bright, athletic, gifted and
talented.
Social Curriculum
In my ideal curriculum students would develop an appreciation for the power
of knowledge. They would not view the acquisition
of knowledge as merely a stepping-
stone towards wealth, the right job, the best college or the appropriate test score,
but
would come to see the intrinsic value of the pursuit of wisdom itself. The student body
would be culturally and
economically diverse. Students would learn to respect and
appreciate one another’s differences, but they would also
be encouraged to explore
those values which link all humanity. They would find common cause as they developed
an appreciation
for art, music and philosophy in addition to the typical core curriculum.
Students would be constantly reminded of the
privileged lives they lead as citizens of a
free society where they have the opportunity to speak openly and critically
and become
agents of political and social change. Students would be encouraged to debate, probe,
explore and question,
but they would always be expected to respect peers and those in
authority over them. Accordingly, they would be led by
teachers and administrators
whose power had been legitimately earned through experience and demonstrated
expertise.
These teachers would utilize various means to “manage” the students, always
employing these techniques with
an eye towards what would be most beneficial to the
student’s intellectual development. This ideal curriculum would
demand much of the
teachers, administrators and students, but would be a worthwhile pursuit.
A discussion of formal curriculum may seem more mundane after stating the
ideal curriculum, but personal experience has
shown me that having a strong formal
curriculum can make any teacher’s job much easier. Formal curriculum can
include
“formal classroom policies, the form of rules and procedures” such as a “written
discipline plan (Powell
42).” This statement reminds me of my initial problems with
classroom discipline as a beginning teacher. My school
had a very confusing
discipline “plan” that was unclear to most teachers. The most basic issues were confusing
and the application of discipline seemed to be unjust as a result. Over the last few years,
with the addition of a
new administration team and a clear discipline policy the most basic
issues of class discipline no longer are questioned
and teachers can clearly outline
expectations for students. As a result I rarely see disciplined meted out in an unjust
manner anymore.
An enacted curriculum operates independently of the formal or ideal
curriculum. The enacted curriculum
can present problems if there is “a mismatch
between the cultural background of the teacher and the students (Powell
42).” In this
case I am reminded of a scenario still playing itself out at the school where I teach. We
have
a young math teacher in her second year. She is highly knowledgeable and a very
nice person. She spent most of her formative
years, however, growing up in Indonesia
before attending a university in the states. Despite her knowledge and the high
quality of
her character, students have had a difficult time interacting with her. I am sure that a
large part of
this comes fro her background in a different culture. One common
complaint, which this teacher recognizes herself, is
her inability to connect with students
on a personal level since she does not share many of the same common cultural
touchstones
of the students. Additionally, because she tends to be reticent about her
upbringing, some students just assume she does
not like them and they fail to
understand how her upbringing in another culture may have shaped her and her
interaction
with them.
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