Assumptions Paper

As I began to think about this topic, I immediately became nervous - what if my assumptions are biased, generalized, and inappropriate? However, I realized the actual purpose of the assignment is to identify those assumptions to better enable me to work through them so I tried to set these concerns aside and be as honest as possible, both with myself and with the class. In doing so, I realized that my assumptions are impacted significantly by the media and based minimally in actual fact or personal experience. Even in the instances where I have actual experience living in a city, I still have images of that city being different than my experience.

In general, my beliefs about urban schools, teachers and students come almost entirely from the media - mainly movies and the news. While the Bulman article ("Teachers in the 'Hood: Hollywood's Middle-Class Fantasy") made me step back and question many of these assumptions, for now I will just describe my initial thoughts.

I immediately think of a huge, overcrowded high school. My first image is that of the Paterson, NJ high school as depicted in the movie "Lean On Me". This is a more interesting image for me as my mother attended that high school many years earlier and constantly points out the differences between her experience growing up in Paterson and those of children there today. Additionally, I remember the metal detectors that I experienced at the Stanford, CT high school that I visited when my parents initially looked at different towns when they moved to CT (they ended up in Trumbull with no metal detectors). I imagine teachers that are either yelling or look worn out - an image that probably comes from various fictional movies. I picture most students who are argumentative and don't appear to care. Then I imagine a few students trying to do well and I immediately assume that the environment makes it almost impossible to succeed - a lack of resources, parents who aren't able to help them, teachers who don't care, peers who make fun of them and violence in the halls. These images and impressions, unfortunately, come entirely from fictional movies and as Bulman discusses, are based more on the white middle-class vision of inner city schools and Hollywood's need to profit, than on any reality that may exist.

In addition, I have assumptions and images based on the TV news - usually showing the worst part of the inner city and rarely showing the best. I remember film clips of students - usually minorities and always boys - slouching down as they are led to a police car with their hands behind their backs. We hear the newscasters talking about drug deals, shootings and other violence. When this is what we see in the media, it is hard to erase these images from our heads. Even though there are certainly positive things happening in city schools, they rarely make the news.

However, I did attend college in West Philadelphia so I have more actual experience of that urban center. Here I remember far fewer high school age students - probably because my daily life didn't bring me near any high schools. Instead, I think of the younger children walking to school, most of whom where chattering and upbeat as they ran through the sidewalks. Even my images of the homeless people around the college campus are not negative - as college students, we knew most of them (although we knew them by our nicknames like the 'gotta penny? man' rather than their actual names) and after the first few months of freshman year, feared very few. In four years of attending college in West Philadelphia, three of those years living in off-campus apartments, and eating most meals off-campus, I only personally knew of one person who was every mugged and he wasn't hurt. However, even with that actual experience being a good one, I still imagine that there must dangerous areas of Philadelphia that we somehow avoided as students. While this might be true, it might not, and both my ignorance and my inability to let go of that impression are embarrassing.

In addition, I lived in four different apartments in Manhattan and my images are quite similar. While I lived on the East side, I had friends up and down the West side, in the village and in Harlem, and no matter where we went out, we never felt scared or intimidated. Before I moved to the city, I thought I would be scared anytime I went out after dark, I would be robbed if I walked around by myself at night, and that the subway was dangerous. However, those assumptions were entirely wrong and in my eight years living in the city, I never had a single experience to back up those assumptions. This discrepancy between my assumptions and my actual experiences again makes me realize that my assumptions and images of the inner city schools, students and teachers are probably also inaccurate. However, even though he meant well, the entire time I lived in the city, my father ended every phone conversation with "Be careful, be safe" so he obviously also holds some impressions of the danger of the city. He never ends conversations that way now that I live in the suburbs.

Even with two positive experiences living in cities, I still assume that there are horribly dangerous areas with gangs, shootings and terrifying schools where minimal education goes on because 'control' and safety are the main concerns. My assumptions may be right in some areas of some cities but in others they are obviously wrong.

Until now when I am questioning these beliefs, I imagined myself as eventually becoming one of those 'teacher-heroes' that Bulman discusses. While I was realistic enough to realize that I probably wouldn't be able to change an entire school, I hoped to have the positive impact on some students that the math teacher has in the movie "Stand and Deliver". I envisioned myself as this new, optimistic face in a school that was mired in mediocrity. I thought I would be able to engage students with new ideas, energy and possibility. However, after taking a few classes here at MSU and reading articles like "The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching" by Martin Haberman, I realize that my ideas are not at all innovative. Instead, current educational theory is entirely different from my memories of high school almost 20 years ago.

I have approached my return to school and my decision to start a second career with 'rose colored glasses'. I entered my first career, in corporate America management, for the usual reasons - the appearance of professional success and money. However, after almost 15 years and an MBA, I realized how much I hated it. I hated the bureaucracy, the inefficiency and the wasted effort. I hated the fact that my entire existence as these companies had absolutely no impact on the company to say nothing of impact on the community or the world. I believe that most large companies can lose 10% of their middle management with minimal impact on the actual productivity of those companies.

Based on these experiences, I have approached the idea of teaching in an entirely different way. A classroom has only one or two teachers in it so I assumed my presence there would have impact (whether bad or good!). My reasons for choosing education as a career are different - I want to do something that has a positive impact on the community and students. I initially thought this would happen automatically - I've always been a good student so I will be able to teach others to be 'good students'. However, after starting the MAT program at MSU, I quickly began to question even my image of a 'good student'. The student who sits at his desk taking notes, studies the lesson and regurgitates it back to the teacher will not be that useful in the 'world of the future'. I realize that I need to think about my assumptions to avoid being condescending to my students, even unconsciously. I need to remember that I have as much to learn from them as they will learn from me. I hope that I'll be able to teach math but these students will be able to teach me so much about the changes in the world since I've been in school.

Again, through my 'rose colored glasses', I assumed that I would find camaraderie with other teachers. I assumed I would immediately make friends with both new and experienced teachers to figure out how to balance classroom 'control' with and interactive teaching style. As I have begun to learn more, both about teaching in general and new theories of education, I realize that even relationships with other teachers will be difficult. I will be the new, inexperienced teacher who knows absolutely nothing of hands-on teaching and I'll need to be open-minded to anything anyone suggests. For me, this will be quite challenging. I usually formulate an idea of how I will do something and stick with it. Instead, I think I'll need to be careful to constantly rethink my ideas and discuss them with many people to improve upon them before I'm forced to live an entire year with classroom 'standards' that just don't work and before I run the risk of alienating experienced teachers who have much to teach me.

I realize that my ideas of an 'innovative' classroom are not at all innovative in today's world. However, it is still probably that my thoughts of the type of classroom I hope to create are good ideas whether or not they are as creative as I initially assumed but I do need to realize that I'm not the first one to try certain things like making the classroom more interactive and have students work together.

I still hope to become an innovative teacher who can form good relationships with other teachers and my students but I realize that my assumptions can bias me to appear condescending. I need to be careful to remember that my assumptions are based in fiction, not in reality, and I need to be open-minded to learn about the actual situation in any school rather than thinking I know things about that school or its students before I experience it myself.

In conclusion, I realize that my assumptions about inner cities - including the schools, teachers and students - have been formed mainly by fictional media and the TV news and minimally by actual experience. I need to remember to constantly question my thoughts and make sure they are based in what I see and hear myself and not what movies and TV have shown me - or even what other people tell me about the area or school.