Prompt 4-Kozol

Prompt 4- Kozol


A culturally competent teacher is aware of the divers cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.
Mrs. Paisley wanted me to get a different feel of a classroom so one time she wanted me to come when the class went to gym. I said okay, so I did. The gym teachers name was Mr. Rock. After he introduced himself to me very impolitely I might add he proceeded to tell me that we just got out of college two years ago. He also told me that I was making a huge mistake becoming a teacher and it is a waste of time. If he didn’t get into the program he never would have become a teacher. He said he didn’t figure out, he hated teaching until he started actually teaching a gym class. For the entire 45 minutes, every word out of his mouth was don’t become a teacher, it’s awful, you’ll regret it and the kids are going to eat you up. Yes, he said eat me up! How rude!
I couldn’t wait to post this story because it was so incredibly annoying. He started off by making the class line up again the wall. Strike 1-They just got a new student but Mr. Rock didn’t know any of their names and he had been teaching them since September. Strike 2-The class pointed out they had a new student he asked who and where she was, after literally pointing her out. Mr. Rock said, “oh, nice to have you.” Strike 3-He set up a sharks and minnows game. He said no screaming, pushing or pulling. If a girl, for instance, Sarah (by accident) bumped into someone, Mr. Rock made Sarah sit facing a corner for ten minutes. If a boy, for instance, Dominic, screaming and shoved someone to the floor, Mr. Rock told him not to do it again and let him go back and play. This occurred the entire gym class. I was so heated by the time it was over. Ohhh right, and strike 4-was when he decided to sit in a chair NOT watching the class and played on his cell phone the ENTIRE class.
I related this story to Kozol even though he was more about the segregation of people of different races. Mr. Rock segregated the girls and boys. Treated them completely differently. I couldn’t believe how he was treating them. I can only imagine how he treats the people in his family. Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that no one should be put in a group or segregated for any reason. Everyone should be and is equal no matter which way you cut it. If half the class is African American and the other half is white, it makes me wonder if Mr. Rock would do the same thing in this situation as he did to the two students.