Prompt #4 - Johnson

“The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.”

Everyone has a different perspective and a different opinion. It is up to the person whether or not they share and act on their opinions. These opinions and perspectives come from an individual’s background and their upbringing. I come from a very supportive and loving family. My parents are both originally from the Upper East Side of Providence but have made our home in Greenville. The town of Smithfield, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, is a mainly white upper middle class town. The school system in Smithfield is very good. Part of my life I attended public schools in Smithfield and the rest I attended catholic school. Besides the education there wasn’t much difference. Neither of the schools suffered from the lack of finances. Teachers liked to assign big projects that cost a fortune to create and never had a problem asking our parents for more money. For high school I attended a private catholic high school in Providence where the tuition was about $10,000 a year and students had the best of everything. No child there suffered from poverty or went to school hungry.

While growing up I have heard comments such as, “Oh those parents don’t care about their kids it’s like they have them to get more money from the system”. It is hard to not have these constant comments influence you. But my students have proved these comments wrong. During my experience at the elementary school I have seen many mothers come to the schools for meetings and watched them walk their child to school and have a friendly conversation with the student’s teacher, proof that these parents are so involved with their children that they know the teacher personally.

I generally work with first graders around the age of 6 or 7. Although my upbringing is extremely different from those of my students I can still easily relate to them. I used to play many of the same sports they do and I remember when the most important thing to me at the end of the school year was field day. I can also relate to them because I have a six year old niece. She and my students watch many of the same shows and it excites the kids when just like them I’ve seen the latest episode of Phineas & Ferb! Being able to relate to them on this level is great. The students feel more open to talk to you and it allows me to know and understand them on a deeper level.

I realize that students in this Providence school are not as privileged as I have been. Many of them come from lower class, poor, dysfunctional families. According to theorist Allan Johnson “Privilege is a social advantage that is both unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category.” As a teacher I must understand that all students are not privileged and that they come from diverse backgrounds. I must remember that , “each individual is unique and a member of a specific social group”. If I remember this then I will not fall to the common bias about the cultures my students come from.