Saturday, March 28, 2009
Bad Boys
I thought the article "Bad Boys" was a really interesting view into education. I think that it can be very dangerous to judge students on their culture, dress, language and identities. Although it cannot be avoided some times it really does impact the education that the student will receive. I thought the importance of reading an article like this is to become aware of how a student can be perceived and from there work to avoid using it in your classroom. Considering that a student can be deemed "unsalvageable" is really sad. To consider them not worth limited resources is also sad to think about. If they are not considered to use these resources and hopefully become suscessful, how will they ever break the cycle of being unsuccessful in school. The black male student is in a vicious cycle and in order to break it resources are going to be needed and used because obviously what we are offering to them now is not working and creating more problems socially.
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I think this article becomes even more interesting after reading the "Pathways" article later in the semester. Judging by the "exile" case found in there, the trope of the "bad boy" is prevalent even in the best intentioned school environment.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost as if this becomes some new form of social darwinism, in which some are considered inferior and unworthy of effort simply because they have a few behavioral issues. The key to overcoming these problems seems to lie more in the attitude the instructor/administrator/parent brings to the table than in the amount of blame that can be foisted off on the child.
In general, people don't act in a self-destructive way without some sort of provocation. We need to do more to find these sources of bad behavior rather than simply punishing the individual over and over again until he is completely alienated from the community.