Culturally Relevant Learning Experience After watching the video, “Why Kids Hate School” where Nikhil Goyal speaks of the difficulties his subject, Nick Perez, experienced in high school, it is clear that school is a place where each learner must change to fit the mold created for them by the governing education system, rather than the system conforming to meet the cultural differences of the students it serves (TEDxYouth, 2012). In order to understand what this means for Nick Perez, or any other student is a similar system, we must discuss, first, the definition of cultural relevance and what it means in the context of the public school system. As, Ladson-Billings, describes in his article, “But that’s just good teaching,” (1995), the
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First, he was diagnosed with ADD at the age of nine and quickly medicated in order to help him cope with his difficult behavior. In reality to use of medications and the subsequent paraprofessional that followed him around to be sure he completed his work, were not for Nick to feel comfortable or accepted, they were a solution for the teachers, and adults to help Nick conform to their ideals of what a student should do in school in order to succeed. This was a typical responds to students like Nick in the early 1990s, and unfortunately it continues to be a quick fix solution in many schools today. The problem with this approach is the focus on the deficits, or disability that the school and Nick’s parents, identified early in his life. If the school and Nick’s parents were to have strived to accept Nick for his differences, then possibly, Nick would have been more successful. The text, Human relationship and Learning in the Multicultural Environment, describes the research of Ladson-Billings, and states that there are three principals for teachers working with students of diverse cultures, which include; all students must achieve academic success, which will build their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem, second, students should develop and maintain cultural competence, which will provide them a sense of pride and relevance, and third, …show more content…
Those frameworks may consist of information that is thought to be important to the school system or the latest research devised by the US Education system, however, there is a lack of connection between what is being taught and what is needed for students to succeed on a personal level, as well as in the capacity of being an active member of society. As mentioned earlier, Nick Perez loved to spend time on his computer. He used his computer to lead his personal learning, outside of school. His computer was much like his own language, the teachers did not recognize that Nick had a language barrier and needed for them to understand that he was different from the other students in this way. The cultural competency taught in Nick’s school was that of the common mistake, which is that students should learn to speak the language of the norm in order to be considered a participating member of the school, or society for that matter. The teachers can use Nick’s interest in computers as a tool from which Nick can learn most
First, he was diagnosed with ADD at the age of nine and quickly medicated in order to help him cope with his difficult behavior. In reality to use of medications and the subsequent paraprofessional that followed him around to be sure he completed his work, were not for Nick to feel comfortable or accepted, they were a solution for the teachers, and adults to help Nick conform to their ideals of what a student should do in school in order to succeed. This was a typical responds to students like Nick in the early 1990s, and unfortunately it continues to be a quick fix solution in many schools today. The problem with this approach is the focus on the deficits, or disability that the school and Nick’s parents, identified early in his life. If the school and Nick’s parents were to have strived to accept Nick for his differences, then possibly, Nick would have been more successful. The text, Human relationship and Learning in the Multicultural Environment, describes the research of Ladson-Billings, and states that there are three principals for teachers working with students of diverse cultures, which include; all students must achieve academic success, which will build their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem, second, students should develop and maintain cultural competence, which will provide them a sense of pride and relevance, and third, …show more content…
Those frameworks may consist of information that is thought to be important to the school system or the latest research devised by the US Education system, however, there is a lack of connection between what is being taught and what is needed for students to succeed on a personal level, as well as in the capacity of being an active member of society. As mentioned earlier, Nick Perez loved to spend time on his computer. He used his computer to lead his personal learning, outside of school. His computer was much like his own language, the teachers did not recognize that Nick had a language barrier and needed for them to understand that he was different from the other students in this way. The cultural competency taught in Nick’s school was that of the common mistake, which is that students should learn to speak the language of the norm in order to be considered a participating member of the school, or society for that matter. The teachers can use Nick’s interest in computers as a tool from which Nick can learn most