School Rules

"School rules operate along with other elements of the formal curriculum such as standardized tests and grades to produce this ordered difference among children." (312). While I do agree that this is occurring within schools and I do think that this isn't very beneficial to any of the students, I feel as though this has become a norm in our society, an accepted norm, and therefore is what we will be entering into when we start teaching at whatever school we end up at. Because of that, it will be difficult for us, if we don't agree with these norms, to do anything to change this in our classroom. We can do as little of these things as possible, but eventually we will have to give into these norms or else we will be seen as some sort of rebel that doesn't play by the rules, and therefore doesn't belong in that district.

However, in regards to "...how manners, style, body language, and oral expressiveness influence the application of school rules and ultimately come to define and label African American students and condemn them to the bottom rung of the social order." (312). Unfortunately in our society today, it is still easy for us to apply stereotypes to any group of people. We tend to fall back on these stereotypes, whether it is due to a bad first impression or because we might have seen these stereotypes first hand. But it is important to remember that these stereotypes don't apply to everyone. Or, that just because our initial impression of someone was bad, that doesn't mean that that person will always live up to that negative view we had of them. At least we are aware of this, and can put a stop to how we view and treat people after we have been misguided. My cooperating teacher for CURRINS 100 would always get so upset and force her anger on some of the black male students (in second grade) when they weren't following the rules, getting out of line, talking back, etc. I hated to see her react this way to those young boys, and I hated that the other students had to be in that environment, but I felt that she and the school were setting these boys up for failure. There was very little these boys could do that would not get them into trouble. But there were times when I sided with the teacher because the school rules she was abiding by were ones that I had grown up with and have come to accept as the norm, and that simply that is the way it is. However, most of the time she got carried away. She looked at every little thing those boys did, and felt she had to punish them in some way. Even if we can't escape these school rules, the best thing to do is not get carried away by any little thing we see as disobedient. Also, the anger she exhibited did nothing to help their behavior, but only made it worse. That is also something to always be aware of, that our reactions can only escalate the problem that might not have been there to begin with, or could have been avoided.

Because these school rules have become the norm, will there ever be a point in our society for every school where these rules can change to set the students up for success, and that these school rules will not be defining and labeling students so they are set up for failure before we really get to know them?