Blog Post #6 - Campano

One of Campano's central themes is the necessity for teachers to listen to their students and their stories. At face value, this seems obvious. With the first day of school comes a number of "ice breakers" and "tell me something about yourself" games. In a survey, I'm sure that most teachers would say that they get to know their students and that they feel like they have a close relationship with most of them.

Still, Campano's reflections on Priscilla and Ma-Lee's survival stories really resonated with me. I feel that I have created good relationships with my students: I go to their sports games, we joke about movies, and a number of my students come and see me after school to hang out or talk. Still, do I really know my students? All of my students have experienced successes and hard-ships, and all of them carry cultural identities, ideals, and experiences. How have I allowed my students to bring these experiences into their education? In many ways, I have failed to connect my students' lives to their education. This must go further than simply celebrating a country's holiday or a random show-and-tell.

When Campano allowed his students to express their stories, he found that, regardless of background, all of his students "asserted their deep emotional investment in schooling". Admittedly, I was taken a back somewhat when I read this. In the daily routine of teaching in an urban public school, it is easy to get lost in the "teacher's lounge banter" that usually focuses on a group of students who simply "don't care" or "it would be better if they just stayed at home." Additionally, probably every teacher has had these thoughts about a student or two: they're lazy, his parents don't care, it's not worth even trying to teach her. If we really take a step back, how do we actually know these things? More often than not, we have failed to really find out what our students think about their education, their goals, or even simply what their educational and life experiences have been like. We are quick to label a kid as "lazy" but we fail to find out what motivates our students and to create meaning for their edcuation. We expect our students to do what we ask of them, but maybe our students don't want to be ordered around by someone who knows nothing about them and just keeps saying "learn this because this will be on the next quiz".