How Much Can You Help?
The Situation
Suppose that you are attending a conference designed to help educators deal with students who have serious difficulties outside school as well as inside-a vital subject, you think, because helping such students was one of your foremost goals in deciding to become a teacher. At the first session you attend, the primary speaker talks about households with severe problems: for example, homes where the parents neglect their children; families in which the parents are physically or psychologically abusive; and situations where the parents are unable or unwilling to provide the children with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care. Not surprisingly, the speaker says, children from families such as these find it difficult to concentrate on learning. To help these students become productive adults, the speaker concludes, educators must take the lead in working with other institutions-social, psychological, and medical, among others-to help students overcome their multitude of problems.
You leave the session convinced that the speaker is correct. At the next session, however, another speaker argues that diverting significant attention and resources to activities outside the school will detract from instructional programming. This speaker contends that schools are organized primarily to advance academic learning and that teachers are trained in providing instruction, not in social work or psychology. Therefore, schools should remain schools, the speaker concludes; they should not try to take on the roles of families or social agencies. Now you are confused, because this speaker also sounds reasonable.
Thought Questions
- What are some of the advantages and disadvantages involved in providing social services in the schools?
- What are some of the obstacles that might need to be overcome in providing social services such as those advocated by the first speaker?
- Which historical trend described in Chapter 5 does each of the viewpoints described above most closely resemble?
- What is your personal viewpoint-which of the two speakers do you think has the more valid conclusion?
- To what extent would a school's policies regarding provision of social services influence your decision to work there or not? How might you find out about its policies and ways in which they affect you as a teacher?
