Notes
Chapter 5: Student Life in School and at Home
Chapter Preview
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School is a culture
o Unique rituals, traditions, norms, mores
o Economic and social factors
Rules, Rituals and Routines
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Schools create their own cultures filled with norms, rituals and routines
Delay and Social Distraction
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Life in Classrooms by Philip W. Jackson: describes how time spent in elementary
classrooms
o Usually teachers are busy while students are caught in patterns of delay that force
them to do nothing
o Children wait around for things to happen in the classroom
Watching the Clock
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Inefficient use of time in school
John Goodland: study of schools
o How time is spent in schools
o See chart on page 174
o Variations in the efficiency of how things were done
 “Time is learning”
The Teacher as Gatekeeper
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Teachers are involved in more than 1,000 verbal exchanges with students each day
Gatekeeping: teachers determine who will talk, when, and for how long (basic director
of communication)
o Classroom interaction patterns do not train students to be active, inquiring, selfreliant learners
o Challenge for new teachers: turn the gatekeeping role into a benefit for students
The Other Side of the Tracks
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Homogenous: students with similar skills and intellectual abilities learn together
o Screen and sort students based on their abilities
o Send students down different school paths (shapes their futures)
 Labeling system begins at an early age
 Social class as a critical factor?
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Parents and peers influence academic choices
 School norms and children’s cultures can clash
Tracking
Jeannie Oakes: Keeping Track (1985/2005): indictment of tracking and
momentum to eliminate tracking practices from schools (detrack)
 No sorting system is consistent with equality of opportunity
Heterogeneous: mixed ability classes
 Problems: Bright students get bored, slower students have trouble keeping
up
 Teachers have trouble meeting the needs of every student
Unremarked revolution: the drop-off in tracking
Ability grouping: sorts students based on capability but the groupings vary by
subject
The Power of Elementary Peer Groups
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Peer groups become increasingly important
o Eventually competing with and even become more important than parental
influence
o First grade: males and females look to the teachers for answers and for emotional
support
o Second grade: boys begin to break away from teacher dependence and place more
importance on their peer groups try to ensure privacy and separation from girls
o Third grade: boys openly challenge adult authority, band together for all-male
clubs, powerful male culture evolves; girls stay together and recreate noncompetitive rules for old-fashioned games
 Excluded from the all-male society: girls and boys who were considered
“sissys;” excluded males exhibit behavioral problems, emotional distress,
academic problems
Gender wall: blocking boys and girls from interacting
Sociograms: provide insights into the social life of a classroom
Adolescent Society
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Middle School: A Gendered World
o Attention to the emotional and physical developmental growth of adolescents: the
primary purpose of middle school life
o Grade configuration: 1-8 versus elementary and middle schools
 It’s what happens in the classroom that matters most!
 Teachers must teach for testing and address social and emotional issues
o The experiences of middle schoolers are similar for students in urban, suburban
and rural American schools, wealthy and poor communities, diverse and
homogenous schools
High School: Lessons in Social Status
o Closed social system
o Is There Life After High School? By Robert Keyes: People’s vivid memories of
high school; particularly of the social system the pattern of social reward and
recognition that is painful or exhilarating
o The Adolescent Society: high school has little material reward to dispense; its
system of reward is reflected in the distribution of status (popularity holds the
highest status)
o Informal grouping: rigidly homogenous
 Adolescents flock toward others like them because adolescent society is
so difficult
 Being part of a group is becoming more challenging
 Increased mobility
 Separation of generations
 Traditional childcare is done
 Lack of intimate relationships versus large groups of friends
Our Children, Your Students
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Children come with an array of backgrounds when they enter your classroom
o A/traditional
o Effects their academic and emotional success and well-being
o While schools and teachers cannot complete resolve various social issues,
education can bring purpose, hope and empowerment
Family Patterns
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Traditional: Two-parent families; mother stays home, father works
Today: 2/3 of children have two-parent families, ¼ of children live only with their
mothers, 5% with fathers, 4% with neither parent
o Children of single-parent families are less likely to achieve and more likely to be
expelled or suspended (191)
o Families are getting smaller, older and more diverse
Latchkey Kids
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Latchkey kids: care for themselves after school
o 1 in 5 children are latchkey
o Often from single-family or two-working parent homes
o Often have few extended family members
o Found in all racial and socio-economic groups
Large amount of hours watching television (self babysitting/self-care)
Divorce
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The underlying stress of divorce leaves children stressed and increases anguish
Changing family dynamic
Financial worries
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Children living only with their mothers are five times more likely to live in poverty than
children living
Classic mourning process; most children rebound after divorce
America’s New Families
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Alternative families: include family lifestyles other than a married male and female living
with their children
o Can consist of:
 Single mothers or fathers
 Unmarried biological parents
 Relatives or friends as guardians
Conventional family stereotype still permeates the school curriculum
Poverty
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Children are the poorest group in our society
Current programs and polices are inadequate
o Don’t provide enough basic necessities: food, shelter, child care, health care
Poor children are more likely to drop-out and become involved in violent crimes, early
sexual activities and drugs
How can teachers help?
o Schools tend to reflect middle class values; poor children often feel out of place,
are unaware of unspoken rules guiding academic and social success
o Cultivate meaningful relationships
o Create meaningful learning
o Provide resources for cognitive, emotional and physical well-being
o Develop language skills
 Expanded vocabulary: broader perspective of the world and improved
ability to communicate
Hidden America: Homeless Families
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One million homeless children are urban and rural and of every racial and ethnic
background
Face significant school challenges
o Constant turmoil and frequent transfers
o Drugs, crime, violence, prostitution
o Children struggle against overwhelming odds
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act: provides homeless with emergency food
services, adult literacy programs, access to schooling, job training,
o Public education amendment: public education for children; a liaison to schools
and to homeless families to help them enter public schools
Children: At Promise or at Risk?
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Changes in teachers’ concerns:
o Mid-1900s: students talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in
the halls, cutting in line, violating dress code
o Today: drug and alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, assault
Dropping Out
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Poor students are 6 times more likely to drop out of school
Students whose parents don’t value education are more likely to drop out
Typically a long process with several warning signs:
o Repeated grades (more likely the more times they repeat)
o Nearly 90% of dropouts can do their work
2/3 of students graduate high school
o Racial, ethnic and gender patterns
Dropout rates can be reduced through early intervention, early literacy programs, service
learning and family involvement
Sexuality and Teenage Pregnancy
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Sexual confusion by society
School approaches:
o 1/3 of school systems preach “abstinence only until marriage”
o Embrace sexual education, stresses abstinence but also includes contraceptive
information
 Receive no federal support
o Differs state to state and district to district and school to school
 Largely affected by community
Substance Abuse
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The United States has the highest rate of teenage drug use of any industrialized country
Alcohol is the most widespread form of substance abuse
o More than 2/3 of high school students admit to regularly drinking
Cultural shift in drug use: prescription drugs to enhance concentration, performance, stay
awake, calm down
What leads to substance abuse?
o Media and pop culture
o Family instability
o Success-driven society
Youth Suicide
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The general suicide rate has decreased but the rate for those between the ages of 15 and
24 has tripled
The third most common cause of death among adolescents
Teachers should look for:
o Depression
 Persistent sadness, boredom, low energy, loss of interest in sleeping and
eating, school avoidance, poor performance
o Often adolescent suicide comes from impulsivity
Bullying
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Primarily occurs in places with little adult supervision
o School buses, playgrounds, hallways, cafeterias
o Where students act informally
Most likely targets are gay students or students perceived as gay
Bullies seek control over others by taking advantage of imbalances in perceived power
o Greater size, physical strength, social status
o Use physical violence and social “weapons”
o Cyber bullying
“Accepted” school tradition
o Teachers accept the myths about bullying: few are affected, “tattle-telling,”
natural behavior, “boys will be boys”
The Affective Side of School Reform
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Current message of many schools: “School is a place of academics; the nonacademic
needs of students receive low priority” (201)
Students report feeling sad and/or depressed
Affective student needs: turn for help: family and friends versus teachers
o Poor and minority students are at risk
o Teachers report that there is little time to worry about anything other than
academics
 Standardized testing
o Delusion of uniqueness; “nobody else has these problems”
Youth charter: reaching out to those around you
o Create youth charters that encourage youngsters to move from dependence to
independence