Do teachers place stereotypes on students or families in the classroom? I say more than likely most do. Right or wrong, teachers are human. Teachers bring to the classroom, their history, their upbringing, and their past experiences. All of these contribute to how they view and think about other people, including their students.
Some teachers in Palm Beach recently attended a class that dealt with breaking stereotypes in the classroom. The teachers were shown pictures of 20 people. They were asked to determine the race of the people in the photographs.
The teachers discussed the race of each person based solely upon the person’s looks. When the teachers were told the race of each of the photographed persons, they were surprised. Many, they had determined wrong.
In my area, there are few minority children. The majority of our school population is white. Stereotypes with race do not seem to be a major issue. However, in large more diversely populated areas, I can see how stereotyping students by their race and background could be a concern.
Although we typically do not struggle with stereotyping due to race in my area, I feel that stereotyping does occur. Children are stereotyped based on where they live and who their parents are.
Teachers naturally assume that some children will be smart because of their high standing in the community. They do not expect as much from other students. I feel that teachers generally do not expect learning disorders and disabilities to come from higher society families.
In my opinion most teachers feel that a majority of the learning and discipline troubles are located in lower income families.
While this may hold true in most cases due to environmental reasons, we should not label or stereotype children. I believe that teachers need to work to break the research and statistics that feed us this information by expecting the same high standards from all children. One can be totally amazed what a child is capable of when pushed to the limit.
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