shesus

I teach a 4/5 split. I have 14 fourth graders and 11 fifth graders.

While conducting research I found a site http://homepages.wmich.edu/~ljohnson/Payne.pdf that explains how to teach people in poverty. Mainly, the driving force of people in generational poverty are entertainment, relationships, and survival. The vocabulary is low (400 - 500 words), so non-verbal assists are used to communicate (talk to the hand, pushing, punching, etc.).

I am assuming you are asking how this affects my job. Basically, I have difficulty teaching concepts because of the conflict. This is not always violent, but can escalate. The students will have outbursts that take attention away from instruction. At any given moment, I typically hear, "She said she was going to kick my butt!" -or- "Get him, before I hurt him!"

I am not saying that I am perfect, however, I place expectations on my students and they are better than most in the school. My class is often getting congratulated by the principal for how they act in the hall. However, my class is still having many problems. When I talk to other teachers, they say that it is the culture and nothing can be done about it. Therefore, I think that the school is fostering this behavior in a way. I have some parents who are involved and their children are typically the best. When asking about some of my worse behavior problems, I hear horror stories about physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. Therefore, although it may not be all on the family, that is a huge factor to consider. Violence breeds violence. If the student is not seeing anything except unhealthy relationships, then that is what they will view as normal. Hence, the reason they say that they like me, but treat me with so much disrespect.

I am not going to quote the rest of your post, but I will address it. I do feel as if I am in another world when I go to work. I feel very out of place and I guess that is probably how they feel being forced to follow middle-class standards. I guess I could quit the fight, accept their culture, and work around it. However, it is very difficult. My job is to teach the students subjects and how to survive in the world. With the attitudes and beliefs that they hold, they are going to have difficulty surviving. They say that they will beat up a manager if they do not get a job when they get older. I can't even imagine thinking this. When someone accidently bumps into them, they are ready to bash their face in. These thoughts and actions are not going to benefit them in the future.

I think I rambled that last part and I apologize. I am getting so deep into this, that it seems I am never going to reach the bottom. I think *aha* that is it. Then something else comes into the light that seems to have more of an impact.

If you have any other thoughts, I would love to hear them. It always helps to get an outside view of things.

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