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Paul Grobstein's picture

classrooms, who's responsible

Very good topic. Glad to join the conversation. Like all teachers, I have a tendency to blame the student when they are "inattentive, bored, or misbehaving" in class, and your suggestion that the teacher is responsible for the context which the student is reacting to is an important counter-balance to this tendency.

At the same time, its important to keep in mind that the classroom context isn't the only influence on the student's behavior, nor is the teacher the only influence on the classroom context. The student's home and social enironments also influence the student's behavior and the student in turn influences the classroom environment. Furthermore, the classroom environment isn't entirely under the teacher's control for additional reasons as well The school budget and administration, the community, and various levels of social/political systems are also influencing the classroom environment. All this is to say one is dealing with a distributed system, in which there are lots of influences rather than a single authority.

Still and all, I agree with your larger point. When things aren't going well in a classroom, the first place a teacher ought to be looking for useful changes is in his/her self. Not because the teacher is solely responsible but rather because it is generally easier to change oneself than it is to change other relevant influences. At the same time, its probably not only appropriate but useful and desirable for a teacher to acknowledge that, however less wrong they get it, what goes on in a classroom is inevitably influenced by others and other forces over which they have less immediate control. This not only can help avoid teachers inapropriately browbeating themselves but also redirect some of the energy of their frustrations to other appropriate targets, such as working to change relevant larger social/politcal structures

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