Case 4: Poverty
Poverty was something I thought I knew a decent amount about. During my adolescence my hometown had 1 in 5 families dependent on social assistance. Compared to an Ontario average of 8%, things having only worsened. Within a little over two years, 40% of the towns labour force lost their jobs. This spring I also had the opportunity to travel across parts of east, and south east Asia. There I witnessed a whole new take on poverty. I am in no position to speak to what it is like living in poverty. But, within Canada, though they are far for perfect, or even sometimes adequate, there are some social programs that can ease some of the pains of living in poverty. While in many countries in the world, there is nothing offered from their own government, and must hope for assistance from an NGO.
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We had the privileged of getting the chance to visit the Okanagan boys and girls club in Kelowna. It was a great learning experience. I was able to find out about programs that I may, need to have knowledge of in order to help some students out. I believe that their restorative justice program is great, it offers youth a chance to redeem themselves without having to serve time.
During the course of this case we learned a little bit about sociological. Three different perspectives were studied; functionalist, conflict, and critical.
This case brought about a very important pillar in my philosophy of teaching, build a person relationship. This will enable me as a teacher to understand where a student is coming from. When Mrs. O came, and spoke to the class on one of the first days she made this clear. In the grand scheme of things not having your homework done is pretty minimal.
This case brought about a very important pillar in my philosophy of teaching, build a person relationship. This will enable me as a teacher to understand where a student is coming from. When Mrs. O came, and spoke to the class on one of the first days she made this clear. In the grand scheme of things not having your homework done is pretty minimal.
Case 5: Cultural Diversity
This is definitely an area that I need to learn so much about. Prior to university my exposure to different cultures was very limited. My lack of knowledge and exposure was so narrow that throughout elementary school I thought my East Indian friend was black. It was not until after he told me he went to visit his grandparents in India that I made the connection that he was East Indian. I remember when I first moved to Kelowna, and my friends would talk about different types of ethnic food that I had never heard of, even religions that I did not know existed. I felt so ignorant, and ashamed. But through a wonderful adventure of different foods, roommates, making friends from different backgrounds and traveling, I slowly began learning and expanding my cultural awareness. Canada is becoming increasingly more diverse than every before. It is incredibly important as a teacher that I have knowledge of different cultural backgrounds.
We took a field trip to Komasket Park, a place for the Okanagan Band near Vernon. There we learned many different ways of teaching. It was all brand new to me, my only interaction with Aboriginal prior to university was playing hockey against a hockey team from Akwesasne, a mohawk territory that straddles the Ontario/Quebec/New York border.
Through the presentations of this case I learned a lot. In my own personal part I realized that even though I had my best intentions, and attempted to censor the activity as much as I could, I was still able to alienate someone.
It was pretty devastating to me to see someone
react that way to something I was teaching. I am sure it is not the last time
this will happen, but I will be even more careful in what I do. This activity
was chosen partially because of what I learned about in Hooks’ Embracing Change. Similarly to what I
overheard during some of the activity, Hooks says ‘several white professors
made comments that could be viewed as horribly racist’ (1994, p. 36). The
intention of my activity, which was also the purpose of Hooks’ meetings, was to
‘educate for critical consciousness’ (1994, pg. 36 ).
Personally, if I did not have teachers that taught me to embrace diversity, who knows where I would be. So many of my family, and friends that have never left my hometown, cling on to, and use stereotypes. I was lucky, I was primed to be exposed to new cultures, without actually experiencing them within my schooling.