I'm just wondering, spurred from the rising anger I felt in our last class of set ways of teaching based on income, if anyone is appalled that the teacher who cares about the student and his or her learning is abundant in higher income areas and the exception in lower income areas. Further more, would I, someone who gets fired up and says I want to change the world (or a classroom) by teaching for the student, be willing to go to the lower income institutions to help the exception be the example? I say I could. I say I want to. I say it is my duty and honor as someone who can and will teach to not bring the best to the kids that already have it, but to those that need it. But then again, I haven't been put in that situation yet. I haven't been in that classroom setting or school district. It makes me sick to think my lofty goals and aspirations would be compromised for my comfort. But then again, if I were to ever have my own family, my comfort is not just about me anymore. Something to think on and wondering what everyone else thinks as well.

I've definitely been struggling with the same ideas... I really want to be in an environment where I can make a difference where it is really needed. However, I really DON'T want to be in the typical inner-city school system that most people view as the one that needs help. I will be teaching music... I honestly believe that music and arts are necessary for a rounded education. I also believe that being part of a music group can really help students learn how to work together and feel that they belong somewhere.

The problem is that people are always questioning this. I am told frequently that I am not helping them to be successful in the world, that music is only for kids who can afford it (although that's really not true, especially for chorus), etc. It makes me second-guess myself all the time. maybe I should go into counseling or something.

I really hope that, wherever I end up teaching, I will be able to improve the quality of life for students of all kinds from all different backgrounds. But... it takes a lot sometimes for me to convince myself that I can actually do that. It's frustrating.

I was just thinking about the very questions you asked Jennifer. I've grown so cynical that I don't believe I can change the world yet I remain a staunch optimist who sees potential in any person, and my optimism bleeds over to teaching.

As our class talks about the teaching profession, I've been imagining myself as a teacher more and more. I imagine being a mentor sitting at a round-table or circle-of-desks where the students are at the same level as me -- literally and metaphorically. I teach the kinds of math and science stereotypically regulated to the "lower" class students, like algebra and conceptual physics instead of calculus and AP physics, and I find this image of equitable mentoring very satisfying.

My cynicism interrupts this image of an ideal classroom to remind me that my goal should be to guide students. If I believe my goal is to "raise" students to some socially "better" class, then I would commit the same prejudice that I was trying to fix because I would assume the students are somehow inferior. It sounds like the articles we are reading for Tuesday allude to the problem of "fixing" students, although they only say that teachers who believe in tracking commit 'self-fulfilling prophecies' by dumbing things down for lower-track students. I go further that this and say that I, as a middle-class teacher, might be unaware of imposing a belief onto students that they are a lower class who need my help.

It's difficult to say without being there, like when a student asks us for a winter coat, ...