Great Educator

Social influences are in fact the great educators of our current generation of students who imitate everything they see on television; from their style of dress to the way they behave one must realize that that school is indeed only a secondary agency that is desperately fighting to keep the children of America abreast with the rest of the world.  The educational problems and possibilities that are presented to teachers by cultural contexts such as media, family, and neighborhoods is basically influence. With more and more parents working longer hours, some taking a back seat to their children’s education in favor of settling their financial situations, most children are not reinforced about the importance of education. It is also generational, some of the parents today are young parents who may have not finished their education and may have valid reasons to not trust the educational system in America, so what happens is that these parents instruct their children on how to not trust the system as well and the cycle of not wanting to learn is then established. With a child’s neighborhood, it can be difficult; depending on the area to get some children out of a life of negativity if that is all they have seen growing up. It is easy for a person in a better standing to give advice and tell children in a  not so good situation that it is ok to want to learn and move up, but if they hear from people in their own environment that it is not then they will tend to listen to the people they can best relate to  rather than someone considered and outsider. With the media, the real war is getting them to help with the problems of education rather than trying to make money off of the young masses, it has become so economically driven that the media will show more advertisements and ridiculous shows telling you had to think and act, that the children of America do not stand a chance of making proper choices if all they have to go on is the media. Media could have so much more purpose in getting out more educational shows and showing children that it is ok to want to learn and be smart. We see on the kids shows that try to say they are kid friendly how they make fun of the smart kid while showing the student who is considered not as smart getting all of the perks of having a lacking education.

A difference that teachers can and should make for their learners if schools are deemed secondary to the wider society in regards to influence is to become a better voice, teachers too have somewhat throw in the towel when trying to deal with a more challenging individual in their class due to lack of support and funding to get the services that child may need.  I do not want to sound like I am against teachers, they do a fine job of helping the majority of children succeed as best they can in the world they currently live and function in, but there needs to be a bigger voice from this group of people and the voice should not go through a type of retaliation from their district if they say something that may not align with that districts steps in helping children. And we cannot blame just poor neighborhoods for the problem, most affluent and middle class neighborhoods are to blame for the fact that they want to exclude the poor students from receiving a good education as well, we need to find solutions together because this is an all-around problem not isolation to some parts of the country.