Sensitivity

Sensitivity is important to keep in mind when talking to a child. A child is going to be different that you and have different experiences. Without talking to a child carefully, you could insult the child when you don't mean to. My teacher wasn't very responsive to differences. He was very straightforward and did not really react carefully to the students. I was often told by students that they didn't like him because he was mean. However, I would always ask if they were learning and they students would always tell me they were learning a lot. You will not always be liked by all you students but I think I would be less mean than my teacher was. He sort of picked on the kids to try to motivate them but it didn't really work.

All of my students that I tutored could speak English just fine. I really didn't need to be sensitive around their language barriers because non of them had any. =) However, if I did have a student with trouble with English, I would get a pocket translator for him/her and myself. I would want the student to still try to communicate with me even if they were shy or afraid to mess up. I would also try to understand that it is harder for them to participate so I wouldn't grade them as hard.

As for sociocultural differences, I will encounter those much more often. The students in my school live very different lives that what I grew up in. We are going to have fundamental differences in our lives that are not necessarily bad. Although sensitivity is needed to make sure that you are not offending the child. I would often avoid talking about holidays with the children. I celebrate christian holidays and I did not want to discuss that with the children. I would call them vacations if I had to talk about a day they got off from school. If they were other religions, I did not want to offend them or make them feel uncomfortable.

There was a group of girls in one of my classes and they began to ask me questions about myself. I had told them I go to college and where I go and they seemed interested. I asked them if they all wanted to go to college. Most of them said yes but one girl said she wouldn't. I wanted to know why and she really couldn't give me an answer. I told her she should really consider it. College wasn't really talked about much among the students because I don't think that the school really emphasized it. They were more concerned about making grades higher. I understand this but I believe we need to motivate these kids to look at the future. I told her that she can go to college no matter what and she should try. She smiled after. =) I believe this was an example of responding to differences. My teachers always drilled it into our heads that college is important but college is on the back burner for most of these kids. That needs to change.