Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
![]() The title for this post is a quote from a teacher in Helsinki, Finland, taken from The Smartest Kids in the World, explaining why he doesn't want to know too much about the children in his class. His explanation really stopped me in my tracks when he continued, "I don't want to have too much empathy for them because I have to teach. If I thought about all of this too much, I would give better marks to them for worse work. I'd think, 'Oh, you poor kid. Oh, well, what can I do?' That would make my job too easy." (162) Apparently, the number of foreigners in Finland has increased over 600% since 1990 and most of the immigrants settle in Helsinki. The hardships faced by the diverse students in this particular teacher's class made him responds with less empathy. This was shocking to me because I've always thought that empathy was the key to good teaching but now I think maybe empathy for kids' home lives could have a negative impact on their learning. Ripley makes a good case for why labelling children as refugees or low income can have a negative effect on them if their teachers treat them differently because of those labels. She cites studies where teachers were told that random children in their classes were gifted and how those kids ended up succeeding more in class because of their teachers' beliefs. A student's parental care, background, income level, and nutrition matter for their success in education but excessive empathy based on those types of labels can compound the issue. Expectations have a huge impact on teaching. This will definitely be on my mind when I go back to student teaching at the inner city school with its diverse learners in the new year.
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David Wiebe
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