Frames of Reference about Urban Schools Paper

Understanding education in urban schools is an area which I feel should be core to anyone seeking to become a teacher. As a teacher you will be faced with many challenges and being prepared will not only be essential to you in your career, it will also have a huge impact on the guidance you provide to your students. I would like to discuss my personal impressions of what constitutes an urban school. Although my impressions may not focus too heavily towards the typical characteristics, I will explore the beliefs behind my reasoning. It’s fair to say I could be wrong and that I actually don’t have a clear idea as what an urban school is, but I look forward to the insight this class has to offer. Urban schools are often referred to as “high needs”, and in many, usually provoke a cringe by the mere thought of pursuing employment in such a place. I can admit that at times I too have tried to omit the possibility of some day becoming an educator in an urban setting. However, I have always been motivated to make a difference and I feel that these areas could use more educators with that common goal.
My personal beliefs of what would constitute an urban school have mostly been formed by my own proximity to them. I have lived in Hudson County my whole life, and to me Jersey City schools have always been the urban schools of my area. If I hadn’t heard the details of a major incident that occurred in those schools by word of mouth, I could always be brought up to speed by the evening news. Although I attended public schools only a couple of towns away, that small distance made a world of difference. In high school I had a close friend who grew up in the Jersey City projects prior to moving to my town. To say that the stories he told of his experiences were shocking is an understatement, but I have to confess that his stories although raw and intense did not impact me as much as knowing that he had been exposed to these experiences at such a young age. When asked what it was like growing up with things like watching classmates being stabbed in the schoolyard right in front of him, his response was, “it was scary the first time, especially because your young, but then you get use to it”. Just a couple of towns apart, but his response was completely foreign to me. From that point on I would pay more attention to the things that created this giant gap between these two worlds.
What most caught my attention wasn’t so much the violence, but the conformity to it. How could something so wrong be considered normal? Quickly I began to find other elements that were being passed off as normal within urban schools. I couldn’t help wondering at what point alcohol and drug use became just something that the kids at school did. And when did teen pregnancy become an “in” thing? If you weren’t dealing drugs or in a gang, then you would have to watch your back if you ever disrespected one of its members, this was just common knowledge. As if these issues weren’t enough, for those students who didn’t drop out as a consequence of one of these problems, they would have to rise above the low standards that were set for them. When I was in school, A’s and B’s were the grades that I was encouraged to strive for. Imagine my shock when I was informed of the praise given to students for reaching C level and even a D level, because D was still considered passing. Is it possible that it became acceptable not to challenge students beyond the constraint that they have found themselves bearers of? It’s almost as if these things passed from being significant issues to significant statistics, to some just numbers on a paper.
It stills troubles me how different schools can set almost opposite sets of standards. While the high school I attended pushed me to enroll in college-prep courses, a couple of towns away among the students that managed to remain in school, some never even considered college as a possibility. Many were trying to survive their present that the prospects of a future were non-existent. A common defense was that careers were meant for people who had the money to go to college. In our schools we were told that scholarships could provide great opportunities, unfortunately in their schools scholarships would be more attainable if only those academic standards weren’t set so low. But setting aside these standards, I still wondered why the hope and desire for a better life hadn’t prevailed for the majority of students in these urban schools. Were these students ever inspired to aspire to greater things? Suddenly the cruel irony became clear to me. While their limited and at times violent lifestyle seemed so foreign to me, in their eyes the high standards and hope for the future I grew up with were somehow foreign to many of them.
I am the type of person that believes that if you really believe in something and you really put your all into reaching these goals you will accomplish great things. It is for this reason that I began to believe that the lack of motivation that existed in most urban students is what maintained these students living in a so-called “urban cycle”. Having realized this, I then began to examine what kind of impact urban teachers were leaving on their students. If school provided me with the educational and motivational tools I needed to succeed, then what were urban teachers providing their students? Through my own experience I know that not all teachers are the same. On one hand there are teachers that are very passionate about the difference they can make. These teachers engage you from the minute you step into the classroom. In the same bunch, but with a much different style are the teachers that you grow to hate for always being on top of you, and never accepting failure. More often than not, as the years go by, these are the teachers you thank. On the other hand, as I also experienced in my own schools, there are also those teachers who just seem to put in their hours. These teachers often times reminded me of dictators. They stuck to their notes, handed out assignments, and were firm in implementing their schedules without any interruptions. Most times they gave me the impression that they dreamed more about the summer than the students did. When it came to discipline, they were usually the ones to kick students out of their classrooms in record time. They hardly seem willing to invest time on resolving any issues, instead they would automatically have a punishment assignment ready for distribution. It was almost as if it wasn’t in their contracts to deal with any outbursts.
Having established these characterizations of teachers I then began to question which type predominated in urban schools. I concluded that perhaps there had to be more of the latter. I think that what most pulled me to this conclusion was the success rate, or lack thereof, that urban schools too often revealed. I know that there are many factors that contribute to the life that a student ultimately leads, and my intention isn’t to place the blame on the teachers. However, I do believe that teachers are critical in the growth and development of a student, and to many they are the only constant guidance in their lives. I strongly believe that teaching isn’t an ordinary job, it is truly something so much deeper than that. The influence you have in a student’s life will stay with them forever for better or for worse. The younger we are the more impressionable we tend to be. As students not only are we trying to find our path in life, we are also trying to find ourselves. A teacher should guide you in the right direction, should encourage you to always pull forward and should provide you with the tools you will need to achieve your goals. Although I am aware that all the other elements in these students’ lives and surroundings do not cease to exists, I still believe that a teacher has the ability to allow them to see beyond all that.
These beliefs will affect my interaction with the teachers I will someday work with, in that I will seek to draw from the passion of those who are truly there to make a change. One teacher can make a difference in a student’s life, but if there are a few with the same common goal this type of unity can reach much further. While getting past the urban environment will be a fundamental obstacle, I am also aware this will not be the only difficulty we will come across. Forming a unified front with my co-workers will provide us with a vital support system among ourselves and this in turn will allow us to more effectively reach our students. As for working with those teachers that really aren’t interested in making a significant difference, I will use their lack of enthusiasm as my personal motivation to become a better teacher for my students. I aim to use my beliefs as a reminder to never lose sight of the obligation I have to my students. My goals will be to make every effort to maintain an open mind when managing the chaos, and to focus on helping these students see beyond their surroundings.
These beliefs are essential in shaping the type of classroom I hope to create. I want to create a place where students not only thirst for more from life, but that they actually expect it. I want my students to know that they can accomplish things beyond their own expectations. I want them to gain an appreciation of knowing that life is not easy and that if something is really worth it, it shouldn’t be easy. Ultimately I hope that they accept that everybody will make mistakes, but that even these mistakes can be valuable if you are able to learn from them and utilize them to become better. I feel that my classroom should create hope in their lives because without this hope these students will continue to conform to their surroundings.
I think that my assumptions relate to the type of professional I hope to become in that although I am aware of the social and economic issues that exist in these urban areas, I focus more on the areas where I am capable of making a significant change. While I can’t change the surroundings in which my students will grow in, I can change the way they see themselves in relation to these surroundings. As a professional it will be my responsibility to help students build the bridges that will allow them to rise above the things that can potentially hold them down. As an educator I must always maintain my focus on the student and on providing them with the tools they will need to overcome the limitations that surround them. My objective will be to give them a vision of a future many of them aren’t completely aware truly exists for them.