Prompt #4

It is true when it is said that everyone has a bias towards something. Our personal histories shape us and mold us into who we are, and what we believe. But how is it that these biases affect how we see our students? If we as future teachers see our students in our VIPS school, we observe them interact with other students, the teacher, ourselves, and other figures of authority. They themselves are generating their own biases, too. Whether those ideas are about race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability, they are still doing it. As hard as we try, teachers and teacher-learners must learn to somehow cope with the fact that all of our students are different and unique, with different strengths and weaknesses. As Robert DeNiro’s character Jack in the film “Meet the Fockers” said “His mind is like a sponge (referring to Little Jack)”. It is true, children’s minds are like sponges. What they hear and see and learn at home and in school becomes engrained in their minds. This is the beginning of their bias, and when they see/hear something that doesn’t quite agree with their own, they lash out.
As Carlson would say, the voices that students express are a part of what they consider to be normal. If in fact the ideas differ with another student, then students “label” the other as “OTHER” or “abnormal”. The communities that they form based on their shared ideals dictates how a teacher responds to the situation at hand. How would my personal history, and thus my bias, intersect with those of my students? I think that I better equipped to handle situations of language barriers because I can speak Spanish pretty fluently. Knowing that with the growing Hispanic population in America, I thought that it would be a good idea in high school to take Spanish so I would be 1) more marketable to colleges, 2) converse with Spanish-speaking friends and not have terrible language barrier problems, and 3) because I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. And I knew that teachers needed to be able to help students whose first language isn’t English.
There are challenges that as a teacher I will face when it comes to dealing with my personal biases and my classroom. At some points, I will have to control my biases towards certain students because of their race or language because I’m here to teach them. Putting aside my biases would mean making myself more open to new things, then be able to use this newfound knowledge from my students in the classroom. My biases might hinder my ability to reach ALL students simply because of our differences in opinion, but it is imperative that I reach ALL because it will better their lives. Including everyone in the classroom is necessary for a bias-free society as Johnson points out. He tells us that in order for change, we have to begin to think about our place in the world NOW and how are biases and beliefs shape the way in which we participate in it.