Education Week October 13th Issue

"Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance."  From this first sentence, I was absolutely hooked on this article about the soft bigotry of low expectations.  It focuses directly on one of the questions that constitutes a teacher's philosophy of education: what is the nature of my students?  I find it amazing that I had never really considered this question before, and my reaction when I first heard it.  I first thought why do I need to know the nature of my students?  It seemed like I would have to get into the classroom first and see what I thought about them.  "How am I supposed to make these judgments when I have never taught before? I think I should just 'wing' it and just go with the flow as far as how I feel about the nature of my students."  The teacher in this article is a perfect example of someone who probably "winged" it like I would have done, and who ended up suffering for it; whose kids ended up suffering for it.  The idea of a self fulfilling prophecy is completely true: we are the ones who determines what happens in our lives and in our classrooms.  Students are going to be the direct benefactors (hopefully) of how teachers feel about them.  Communication, as this article describes, is key.  Basically, students would have payed attention more knowing how much work went into preparing for class; teachers wouldn't sell their students short by thinking they can't do it or are just wrong.  One the other side, understanding is a key component in the collaborative effort that is teaching.  Rather than having the teacher bash their head against the wall trying so hard one way simply needs to refocus and adjust.  Students are more than capable of understanding, they simply have to be in the right mindset, or, as Teaching with the Brain in Mind would say, the right state.  We as teacher's will have the ultimate task in helping student's understand what it means to teach and to be a teacher.  Doing so will provide a frame of reference for students to understand what it means to learn and be a learner.