A couple quick thoughts. First, it's fascinating how much class discussion - as well as the video - revolved around the emotional bonds created through classroom relationships, whether for better or worse. One assumption that some students made (I think) was that school can be, or should be, a place where alienated students find confidence and security from an 'adult.' Is that right? It's a powerful observation, because it seems to imply that school - or society - is otherwise full of mean adults, as well as bad relations. Anyone care to comment?
Second thought: given how much emphasis people put on affective relationships, what percentage of teacher professional training is spent speaking to the role of interpersonal relationships in the classroom? How much time is spent on discipline-related issues (punishments, 'out of order' issues, etc)? How much time is spent on creating professional bonds that create the affective environments people seem to want?
In my own professional training, I would say everything I learned about relating to people, students, and colleagues was 'indirect.' In other words, my training was spent on learning content and mastering skills. Everything else came from watching and learning from experience. Is that right?
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ReplyDeletetest confirmed.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the testing Dr. Cooper but the first few times I tried this it didn't post. With regards to your comments, I don't think it's so much mean or bad people as people making uninformed or hasty choices in the way we treat each other. These negative reactions only serve to perpetuate hostility/disinterest. Example: Child does no homework for a week. Teacher accuses child of irresponsibility and child loses interest in trying. It's a vicious cycle.Yet there has to be more to it. What do we know if parents are divorcing or working sixteen hour days to make ends meet?Now to the child both parents and teachers seem mean when in reality they are all trying to make their lives better.
ReplyDeleteSecond response:We are desperately in need of further discussions on interpersonal relationships considering we are dedicating our lives to people. If we love the material but not those we are sharing the data with, the impact can be catastrophic. We might end up with people dropping out perpetuating a life of misery because they are always too busy either paying bills or working hard at forgetting they have to pay bills.As for discipline is it even mandatory? Does time out work in class rooms? If I'm asking then you can tell I haven't received the training for that. I have been lucky enough to form professional bonds with my professors at La Guardia but none with the professors at another pricey university I attended. A sense of community between professors and students does thrive here.
Thanks for this response. I take your points about "bad people." I think the real-world example you raise about homework and irresponsibility is important. I also agree that further reflection on inter-personal behavior and relationships is key to our profession, but we spend a LOT more time reviewing content, not "affections," or the emotional ways we produce feelings in others. I'm also curious - and gratified - to hear about your positive experiences at LaGuardia. I hope they continue...
ReplyDeleteWell, where to begin? At this point graduation is around the corner and I started in March 2012. That's a lot of caring! I came back to college after my husband was diagnosed with heart failure and after I stopped nursing our fifth and final child. An attempt at completing my degree seemed the logical next step in order to care for my children in the worst case scenario. So here I was ready to take on college but completely unprepared to face the immense realities of my situation. During an Art class I had a professor speak to me because by simply noting the color scheme of the minor assignment he realized I was unhappy. This might not sound impressive but when you consider we were assigned a gray scale and I hadn't shared my personal life with him it was amazing that he could interpret what I was unwilling to explore. Even as I write this James Moffett is on my brain because my Art professor was also a "foolish sage" willing to play the fool as a means to lower my guard enough into asking the most important question one human being can ask another; Are you OK? He shared some of his personal struggles with me and he allowed me to give myself permission to honestly visit my feelings because mommies can not cry in front of their children. He helped me grant myself the right to reflect. Art. Who knew? He was the first but not the last. They were certainly too many to fit in this blog.
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