“I’m not a social worker”

Today’s guest blog post is from Golden Apple’s Director of Professional Development and Golden Apple Fellow Penny Lundquist.

On a recent visit to a far south side Chicago public high school, I observed a well-spoken African-American student linger after class.  When the young man left, I commented to his teacher, “he seems to be quite interested in your class.  One of your better students?” The teacher replied.  “He’s very smart, but he’s failing my class.” When I asked him why, the teacher responded, “I don’t know why.  I don’t pry into my students’ personal lives.  I’m not a social worker.”

Far too many poor and minority students, students of promise, are also students who are beset by wide-ranging life challenges outside of school that interfere with their ability to succeed in school.  Unfortunately, far too many of their teachers view their role as purely academic and are unable or unwilling to reach out to them to build the bridge those students need.

Sarah Karp’s “Teaching Kids to Cope” in the April 08 issue of Catalyst addresses social and emotional learning:

In the first-ever districtwide survey of students last spring, CPS students were asked a number of questions about their own and their peers’ social and emotional development. … The results showed that social and emotional learning is the No. 1 area students identified as needing improvement . . . [However,] Teachers worry that social and emotional lessons will cut into time they have to spend teaching reading or math. Others don’t see the immediate impact.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear, has there been a sound?  If a teacher imparts information, “teaches,” to students who are so beset by life challenges that they cannot absorb the teaching, has the teacher really taught? 

Vivian Loseth, Executive Director of Youth Guidance, explained it this way in the Catalyst article:

One of the common things you find with bad teachers is that they have not found a way to connect with students. If you can connect with kids and teach them how to manage their own behavior, then it frees up time for math and science.

Should a teachers’ role include “social work?” If so, how can we make sure teachers are getting the training and support to provide this role? What would this training look like?

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"I don’t know why.  I don’t pry into my students’ personal lives.  I’m not a social worker.”

The comment says a lot about the teacher’s lack of understanding about his job. If his sole job is presenting information, he can be replaced by a DVD or a computer program.

Teachers who do not make any attempt to know their students are going to fail as educators. I realize that a teacher’s time is not unlimited, and the bureaucracy surrounding teaching can be stifling. Nonetheless, a teacher must, to the best of his/her ability, figure out ways to reach the students.

In the case Penny presents, the teacher knows the student is smart, but seems unconcerned that the student is failing. That is clearly unacceptable.

It doesn’t take a social worker to stop the student on the way out of class and try to create a connection or to ask a few simple questions. It does, however, take a real teacher, not someone who sees himself as an instruction machine.

This is just one more thing teachers are pushing aside to get their kids “test-ready”

a former special education turned principal of a c.p.s school told the school’s faculty, “You can’t be a good teacher unless you’re a good person.  You can’t be an excellent teacher unless you’re an excellent person.”