Journal 5

As a future educator, I believe that the relationship between students, parents and teachers is incredibly important.  Growing up, I used to find it embarrassing when my parents would come to my elementary or middle school for the annual meeting with my teacher.  They would talk to my teacher as if they cared or they knew the teacher better than I did!  I mean, I had to take the class, my parents did not.  Looking back, I realize that I am grateful for the relationship my parents were trying to build with me and my education.  They wanted to know what I was learning and how I was doing in class.  There have been a couple of moments that my parents have contacted my teacher for various reasons and as a result, there were hardly ever any misunderstandings.  Communication can be so powerful between the parents and school.

In the articles that I read, Finding Ways In: Community-Based Perspectives on Southeast Asian Family Involvement with Schools in a New England State and Beyond the Bake Sale: A Community Based Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools, many things stuck out to me.  It was hard enough growing up and going to school being a white female, born and raised in the U.S. and speaking the language.  I cannot even imagine being an immigrant and/or refugee that has no extensive knowledge of the language and customs of a different country.  Yet this is what many parents and children have to face in the former article.  They are expected to go to school, understand what is going on and the parents as well.  What is very important is to be able to establish the parent-teacher-student relationship because it creates an educational bond that can help in so many ways: the student is not afraid to go to the teacher for help, the parent feels comfortable enough to contact and communicate with the teacher, etc.

In the latter article, parent involvement in schools is something that most people do envision as “the bake sale”.  From my elementary school days, I remember my parents helping out with the oh-so-original bake sale and going to the PTO meetings.  Since I was in band, my parents also helped with that aspect of my education as well as volunteering to accompany the teachers and students on field trips.  I am grateful that my parents have always gone beyond the bake sale with my education, even now!  I think that it is more than helping out the school, it is also showing your child that you really care and are invested in their education and interests.  My parents did not have to do anything extra for me, but by attending all of my concerts and helping out at many school and extracurricular functions, I was proud that I was their student.  Not only did my parents come to know many of the teachers throughout my education, but they also got a clearer picture of what was happening at school by being involved themselves.  It was not foreign territory for them but rather a place that they recognize.  They always let me have my space but never passed up on a great opportunity to help the students or teachers.  As a result, communication was easy within the parent-teacher-student relationship.  If there is something like a language barrier, it is still important for the parents to be able to talk with the teacher more than once so it is comfortable for communication.  It not only benefits the parents but the students as well.

Journal 4

The Fine and McClelland article Sexual Education and Desire: Still Missing after All These Years was a very interesting read. First of all, the fact that the government had decided that the major focus on sex education should be on abstinence only is ludicrous. That concept might have worked better decades ago when it was commonly understood that at least women would try to save sex until marriage.  In this day and age, it is impossible to assume or expect that everyone, males and females, will both wait to have sex until marriage when there is such a crushing influence to have sex all around them.  Sexuality is prevalent in the media therefore influencing the actions and ideas of many people growing up with this sort of exposure.  What should be happening instead is to teach everyone about contraceptives and abstinence as well.  It is not smart to assume that everyone can and will stay abstinent until marriage because, in the end, some will not ever marry!  Are they supposed to not have sex then?  It is then expected that everyone will get married and that everyone has the same beliefs in marriage.  Sex education should be a general form of information given about everything that can happen with no bias towards one preference or the other.

Thinking of two of my friends from high school, I could relate through them to the Anderson article Lesbian and Gay Adolescents: Social and Developmental Considerations. It was interesting to read that gay men noticed and/or accepted their homosexuality a few years, generally speaking, before lesbians.  It seems that everyone places females as ahead in growth and development physically but in sexual preference, homosexual males are usually the first to discover and accept it.  Two of my friends from high school both came out in their late teens.  I always had a hunch that they both might be gay because of how they sometimes let their preferences slip out.  Throughout high school, both of them dated girls and put up a front because they did not want anyone to know.  It was not like they were trying to change themselves, but they did not want to have to deal with the emotional “baggage” that usually went with coming out in high school.  They wanted to be accepted and not have to worry everyday if someone was going to bully them.  I can’t blame them.  I think most straight people take for granted not being bullied about sexual preference in terms of gender.  The media, as always, is a big influence and being a macho-woman-loving-man seems to be “preferred”.  But then there are movies, TV shows, etc. that put a more positive light on being gay or lesbian.  My friends came out in their late teens before one of my girl friends came out during college.  I had never noticed the correlation before because I honestly would think that it is harder for a man to come out being gay than a woman coming out as a lesbian.

The article On Being “Hardcore” is something that I have heard about multiple times in discussions.  It seems that stereotypes are prevalent in the arguments and how certain ethnic groups are supposed to act a certain way because that is how they are portrayed.  African Americans are easily judged to be from a rough background as well as Latinos, etc.  The media portrays this many times but youth growing up sometimes feel the need to copy it because that is what is popular in the movies, etc.  Especially in the article about the robbery, it makes it seem that the kids did that just because they wanted to and it was expected of them.  What the media doesn’t portray is what is really going on with the youth and just sees their actions and consequences but turns a blind eye to the trigger.