My So Called Blog, The Fourth

As I mentioned before, I live on a floor with 24 college freshman who mentor once a week at the elementary school where I student teach. It’s really interesting to hear 24 perspectives and reactions to this urban school setting especially since we, as a group, started around the same time. The mentors are a diverse group of UPENN students who come from all over the US (actually, we have two international students on the floor too) and from all types of backgrounds. When listening to the mentors about their experiences in the classrooms, there seems to be one common observation.

The disciplinary style is different than what we were expecting in an elementary school and different than what we, ourselves, experienced in school. I can hear clearly from the classroom where I student teach, three sometimes four, teachers screaming at their respective classrooms. From what I can tell, the children seem to be obedient and respectful of adults at school so why all the yelling? Is it necessary?

Some of the teachers explain that their communicative style is consistent with the urban African American families that live in the community (the school is 98% African American). Do teachers, or any adult for that matter, have no choice but to yell and scream at their children? As I struggle to find my own classroom voice and my own disciplinary style, I find it disheartening to think that this is the only way. Are the children well behaved and respectful in spite of the yelling or because of the yelling? Is this disciplinary style imbedded in the culture because the kids respond to it or because it seems to be par for the course in urban school settings?