Bursting the Maslow Bubble

My school is fairly mono cultural. We have a sprinkling of Indigenous, Maori, and Asian kids, but mostly it's a sea of white and the only cultural battle is over the proper pronunciation of 'yoghurt'. As a teacher, this is not a terrible thing. It's easier. One of my earlier schools had race riots occurring during break time (I was always very impressed they waited until class was over). My hardest job lately has been trying to figure out why a single teenage Maori boy always looked like he wanted to punch me in the face. The government, in their wisdom, insists on cutting back the education budget, so I don't always have the resources or people to ask to figure this stuff out. I rely of the good graces from my own friendly networking to ask 'hypothetical' questions and try to resolve these issues. (btw - he never did punch me in the face but I did confirm that he was thinking it)

There is a rather large problem when we are not culturally stretched. We make assumptions. The big assumption where I work is that middle class white kids don't have a lot of issues. Their families are gainfully employed, they have a larger than average sized roof over their head, and English is their first language - whether it's the Queen's version or pure ocker. In this case, we are making 'an ass out of you and umption'. These kids have issues.

Remember the school with the race riots? One of the kids in that school was a refugee. Didn't speak a whole lot of good English but was determined to master it as soon as possible. His family was large and shared a house that didn't always have the electricity connected or running water, but, by God, he made it to school - smelled like a goat but he was there. His classmates used to groan when he was the first to put his hand up to read aloud because he was so damn slow. And I admit, it was painful to listen to.

Back in mono cultural land with the assumed white privilege, one of the kids just can't spend an entire day either in class, or not conducting his own mini-riot (ie - he's the only participant). Turns out his family thinks throwing money in the general direction of their teenager is as good as actually parenting him.

Now I argued with my sister yesterday that Piaget is a goose. Screw your 'rich learning environments' when kids are homeless or hungry. I'm more of a Maslow fan. But reflecting on those two kids what I realise is the main difference is not the adequate shelter or lack thereof, it's love.

So, I was wrong. It's not really easy to work in this school. It's easier to resolve a lack of electricity than it is to resolve a lack of love.