how far is too far?
through all of my preparations for becoming a teacher, i've come to understand just how much hidden work there is. anyone can be a crappy teacher, but it takes long hours, countless considerations, endless passion and flexibility to create a lesson that will be engaging and informative to your students. one of the basic facets of lesson preparation is making modifications for individual students' needs. this could mean anything from creating handouts with larger print for a student with a visual impairment to bringing in an interpreter for a student who is deaf.
today in my 'teaching ESL' class, we discussed modifications for limited english proficiency students. in our discussion we began to touch on cultural sensitivity. my professor presented the example of a girl from a middle eastern country whose parents don't want her interacting with boys. she began to discuss ways in which we can accomodate the parents until someone posed the obvious question: if they are living in our country, attending our schools, aren't they going to have to make some compromises concerning culture? if i visited a middle eastern country, i would certainly abide by their cultural norms and not expect to receive any special treatment. isn't part of the point of living in a foreign country to experience their culture? how much can i reasonably be expected to change in the name of cultural sensitivity and at what point will it begin to hinder my ability to teach all the students in my classroom?
today in my 'teaching ESL' class, we discussed modifications for limited english proficiency students. in our discussion we began to touch on cultural sensitivity. my professor presented the example of a girl from a middle eastern country whose parents don't want her interacting with boys. she began to discuss ways in which we can accomodate the parents until someone posed the obvious question: if they are living in our country, attending our schools, aren't they going to have to make some compromises concerning culture? if i visited a middle eastern country, i would certainly abide by their cultural norms and not expect to receive any special treatment. isn't part of the point of living in a foreign country to experience their culture? how much can i reasonably be expected to change in the name of cultural sensitivity and at what point will it begin to hinder my ability to teach all the students in my classroom?
3 Comments:
I'm glad to hear someone in your class (other than you, of course) has the intellect and gaul to speak up about such stupidity and veiled narcissism.
By
Michael Ward, at 7:42 PM
One of the biggest problems my mom and some other teacher friends run into is gay parents. They think that if you send their kid to the principle that you are only being prejudiced against the kid because they are gay.
Actually it's really only Lesbian parents, not a lot of happy Lesbians out there.
By
Otis, at 9:28 PM
there's not doubt that some adjustments should be made to accomodate personal belief systems. however, the issue of mixing genders touches on one of the most fundamental american values: equality. consider this, if the student's parents did not want them seated next to or grouped with black students for religious reasons, would we still try to accomodate them? of course not. there are certain principles that we cannot compromise and equality of all persons is one of them.
By
martha, at 5:06 AM
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