During the activity on Thursday I became very agitated. I was in the lowest class group. I understood that the setup of the activity was a reflection of the text; however, I was thoroughly irritated. It was not a positive experience to have my previously open teacher become a judgmental and direct monster. Dr. Turner did mention that she was afraid I might throw some thing at her or become so frustrated that I would become disengaged. In my past I have had few experiences with this type of teacher and learning style. I wanted Dr. Turner to push my button just a little harder so I felt the right and the responsibility to cause a scene. At first I just wanted to be disruptful for the fun of it, but as the activity continued where I was continually degraded by Dr. Turner’s tone and assignment I truly felt like it was the correct thing to fight back. I would like to mention that no student should be asked to be quiet, not talk with their peers, be ashamed because they forgot their book, and be scolded every time they open their mouth. That is no way to learn. That is how you create “ungratefulâ€

Lia, I'm sorry that you were treated this way, even if it was a class activity. I agree with you: no one should ever be treated this way. We are all human beings, and with that said, we all deserve the same respect.

I can't remember who said it in class, but this really did feel like Archie Bunker's Neighborhood to me. I honestly didn't feel like that until I was back in the classroom because I didn't know what was happening in the classroom when we were doing the activity. I actually wasn't quite sure what we were doing. I knew that each of the groups had a different type of school, but I didn't know that it would be taken to the point of actually treating each group with the stereotypes associated with each group.

In my opinion, I don't think the way of doing this was a good way. If we were all in the same place and this happened, we might have gotten more out of it, but since two of the groups were out in the hall, they had no idea what was happening to the other groups.

I agree, no student should be treated this way. Not only does it cause the student to feel as though they should act out, it also threatens their ability to focus on learning. Even though I was in the "middle class group" for this assignment, we too were scolded for having some group members that didn't bring their text. Infact, one of our group members was scolded for being barely two arms lengths away from our group. This activity actually reminded me of several teachers I had in my elementary school. One teacher scolded me for answering too many questions. Apparently, there is a such thing as "chronic hand raising". I only hope whenever I become a teacher, I do not fall into the rut of putting process and answer above actual education.

I was also in the lower-class group, and I was honestly a little scared a lot of the time. I was hoping that she was role-playing, because we were being treated so unfairly. When Dr. Turner came into the room and asked why we were all talking in a very stern tone of voice, I honestly thought that she was in a bad mood for the first ten minutes until I started hoping that this was all some sort of odd skit. I didn't know what to do, but I definitely felt degraded because I feel like I am a lot more smart and accomplished than the way I was being treated. However, I am actually very thankful for the experience, because i now realize that this is a type of teaching that many students are exposed to all the time, and it made me realize that I will work harder to make sure that I am never that type of teacher.

I was in the "social elite" group and was treated just like I would be treated any other day in Dr. Turner's classroom. I remember her saying something along the lines of ...the point is that you should have access to anything you want and are able to move freely within the building or in and out of the classroom. I had no idea that she was going back into the room and role playing. After I figured out what was going on, I realized that I have had teachers like that! It seemed that we were more concerned over not talking, forgetting our books, or getting anywhere out of line than concentrating on learning and thinking outside of the box. My second grade teacher was one of those who wrote up on the board our assignments for the day. It would say something like: Math- read pg 3 and do problems 1-20 on pg. 4. English - Read ch. 2 and answer chapter review questions. I'm not exaggerating...that was every single day in her classroom. She was a great deal older than the other teachers so I guess she had that "old school" mentality. We would sit in our seats and go down the list on the board that told us what to do in each book and each subject with little or no instruction from her, and not talk. If we talked, or messed up, we had to put our name in a box on the board under the words "I broke a rule." I also remember her becoming very angry with one of my classmates and making him sit in the storage closet, facing the wall, and copying out of a dictionary for the rest of the day. SECOND GRADE....we were barely 7 years old! It makes me sick to think about education being done that way. I HATED elementary school because I got quite a few bad teachers, but this lady wins. I would honestly have a hard time being nice to her if I were to bump into her today... nearly 15 years later.

I think the fact that we were separated served to illustrate the group differences more clearly. If you have never experienced being treated like this it is hard to comprehend how bad it can be. Authoritative is along way from authoritarian. I think the groups did show the great differences and infinitely better opportunities some schools have over others. Weather we want to omit it or not money does provide privilege and access to better education. Wealthy school districts have no problem recruiting and keeping good teachers. Sometimes poorer districts have very little teacher stability due to high turnover.

I was in the "elite" group. We were treated with the upmost respect and told to do as we pleased. I feel like I was treated like this in high school. However leisurely and enticing this may seem, it also put a lot of pressure on me. I felt like I had to do everything perfectly, or I would be judged and not accepted. Therefore, I do not believe it is always an advantage to be in the "elite" group. When I think of how much stress and anxiety was created for me, it is hard to remember all the advantages it brought. I agree with the people who were in the lower class group as well. I would never want to be treated like that, and I most certainly do not want to ever treat my students like that. I guess getting to see both sides shows that "the grass is not green on the other side" for either group. Therefore, I would prefere to be in the middle. I believe it is important to mix teaching styles and use a variety of methods. It is also necessary to use a variety of behaviors towards students, depending on the situation. For example, at the beginning of the year it would be necessary to make students sit and work at their desks (giving them opportunties to discuss only with those beside them). Then, as they earned your respect and proved they were responsible, you could let them move around the room, go outside, and use a variety of resources to learn. I would never base how I treated a student on their socio-economic background. It should be based on their character.

I differ with everyone else in that I knew what was happening right away. To me, it was obvious due to the context of the reading. Whereas most people were intimidated or had their buttons pushed, I wanted to play it up, act along, and see how far I could push Gayle's button...though my strategy didn't work because too often I'm miss "Goody goody." I was in the middle class group, and immediatly after Gayle told a member of our group that was at 2 arms lengths away from our table to come back to our group, I deliberatly walked over to the "lower class" tables and nicly asked if anyone needed an extra book, all the while looking over at Gayle to see her reactions. Ironically, she did nothing. I even sat on the table when our group was told to take a seat, jumping over it at one point...

As silly as that seems, it was my way of breaking the social boundries, in a sense. Though I didn't feel uncomfortable, I'm glad to hear some of you did. It's not typically a situation I want for students or anyone, but I'm thankful we could learn about it this way within the context of a classroom where we can discuss the results and our feelings. I think one of the best way to learn is by experience. I'm glad Gayle had us live in someone elses shoes for a few minutes.

The social rules and norms and class differences are really sad. What have we come to?

I agree with Lianna. I also was in the working class group. I first thought Dr. Turner was kidding around while she was being kind of mean. When Dr. Turner first came into the classroom after talking to the first two groups and told us we were being too loud, it was then I thought she was being serious. I began getting aggitated because of the way we were being treated. We had to work on our own, while all the other economic classes got to work in groups. It didn't take long though for me to figure out that we were in fact doing an activity where we were being treated like the individuals in these certain groups. It's much like Archie Bunker's Neighborhood, which we played at our Junior Conference for Teaching Fellows. I actually was disappointed though, that our group did not get to tell the rest of our class our information we found out from our reading.

I was also in the working class group during the class activity. I knew from the get go this had to be a activity not serious. First of all, because of previous discussions in class on this subject, and due to the fact Dr Turner has never acted like that towards us! Even so I still became agitated during the activity. I didn't have my own book, and because of our strict seating arrangements I found it difficult to look on with my group. I was worried that I was not going to be able to gather the proper information and would look like a complete idiot when presenting it to my classmates. Even though I knew this was an activity it did open my eyes to social boundaries often occurring inside schools today. After getting out of the groups and having a class discussion I really started to realize that such segregation occurred more often then I thought back in my own community. Proving how easy it is for those in higher groups to let these kinds of things go unnoticed. I think this activity will help me be more aware of these types situations in the future.