Emotionally Charged Subjects and Christian

Emotionally Charged Subjects and Christian Education

Overview- The school chosen for this review is a Title I school we shall call Pineview Elementary. Pineview is a K-6 school, with over 20 different languages and ethnicities represented. There are approximately 450 students enrolled, and the below graph shows the ethnic breakdown for the school. Unfortunately, students in grades 3-6 fell short of meeting either district or state standards for achievement/learning tests. This is likely due to economic and cultural challenges faced at the school.

Summation -- There are several challenges faced by Pineview Elementary. Because of the Title I status, there is funding available at a different level than the rest of the district, and there is a fully stocked and staffed computer lab, an enriched library, but no funding for photocopy production, snacks, field trips, or extracurricular activities. In order to help the student experience, Pineview partners with other organizations (e.g. A local church will sponsor a trip somewhere or an arts event, or even sometimes a science project). And, although our classes are relatively small compared to district averages (20-23 students per teacher), there is a clear home/school/home issue that is not resulting in maximum learning potential.

To combat this, Pineview instituted quarterly Parenting Workshops. These programs are taught in English and Spanish, are designed to be non-judgmental and focus on ways parents can improve their interaction with their child in order to help further the child's learning experience. For instance, clear boundaries about homework time are suggested and ways of being more effective in establishing those rules; and even if the parent does not feel confident in actually participating or helping with the work, being consistent in helping the child organize their time and goal orientation to complete the work to standard.

The program is too new to measure the actual efficacy, and most of the data so far is qualitative and anecdotal. Teachers report that children of parents who attend these workshops do show signs of improvement in consistency and learning. However, administration admits that they can only control what happens "in school," not the parenting habits or discipline structure of the home.

Understanding this issue is a challenging and, frankly, worrisome issue for a future teacher. Teachers are tasked with the responsibility of improving learning scores for standardized tests, schools as a whole must adhere to state standards, but there is a lack of control over what happens outside the classroom and during breaks and summer vacation. One cannot force parents to participate, and in the contemporary economy it is rare that both parents, if at home at all, are not working.

In addition, looking at a broader view of the cognitive abilities of these students, one finds that they are 12-24 months behind students of middle and upper-middle income brackets just a few blocks away -- same city, same zip code, same district, similar teacher backgrounds. The literature suggests that this is based on reinforcement opportunities in the home, which if not part of the consistent learning experience, will doom these children to always "being behind (Fantuzzo, et.al., 2004).