A Luther Burbank High School freshman was surprised to read his full name included on a biology final. Not only that, but he was being ridiculed. “In high school, there are individuals who are cross-eyed like (the name of a fellow student) and (the name of the student previously mentioned), which is a dominant trait. We call those individuals ‘weirdoes’. So, if you crossed two weirdoes (the two students named again), that are heterozygous for being cross-eyed, what is the offspring that would result?” Many students in the class were targeted by first and last name on the exam. Teacher Alex Nguyen chose to describe these students by their ethnicities and physical features, and then paired them up, posing questions about what traits a theoretical child of these two students would have. On one question, the teacher wrote a disclaimer, saying “in no way do I promote students being sexually active,” but the student’s parents and other teachers at the school said that the implication of any sexual relationship between students is inappropriate.
I think another problem in schools is that classrooms are so isolated, which means that teachers are isolated from each other, too. The little world of a classroom can have a great culture and atmosphere, but it can also be pretty fucked up in a multitude of ways when one adult is overseeing 15-25 kids every day for a year. Honestly, it even gets kind of lonely as a teacher when you have so little meaningful time spent with peers.
A good principal steps into each classroom regularly, but more co-teaching and interdisciplinary studies would both be better for students as well as an improvement to teacher culture.
15-25 kids…
Like, per period? Cause that numbers low for public schooling
15 is low, but 18 - 24 per period is normal in my district. The point still stands, though, even if it’s a California classroom.
The way you wrote it makes it seem like you meant in total, not per period was my point. The total number is likely closer to 100 a school year which is vastly different to 15 total.
15*6=90 so I was fairly conservative on my estimate… Which further proves my point that the difference between 30 students total is vastly different than 180 total if we wanted to hit the other end of that average
You’re right, I was unclear about that, but it doesn’t really matter to my point. An isolated group of 15-25 kids and a teacher is the typical organization of a school, and this isolation has it’s benefits but can lead to problems.