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Case: Not A Poor Loser. I teach in an urban elementary school where most of the children are on free or reduced lunch. Most of the students live close to the school, but we have a small number of students from middle socioeconomic status who are bused from nearby neighborhoods. Most of these students do not qualify for free or reduced lunch. When Josh joined my 5th grade classroom two weeks ago, I handed him the free/reduced lunch coupons to be submitted to the lunch room personnel at lunch time. What I did not realize was that Josh did not qualify for free or reduced lunch but I simply made the assumption that he did because most of our students do. When Josh saw the coupons he asked me what they were and I told him what they were. He said, in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear, that he was not one of those poor losers who had to get government's help. I was surprised to hear such a thing from a 5th grade student. I told him that what he said was wrong and hurtful but he did not seem to care much. I wondered if he learned these types of things at home. Because his classmates heard what he said, they have not accepted him as a friend. Josh now is an isolated child. I have to deal with this issue. I have to find a way to bring Josh and the rest of the class together but I don't know where to begin. Do I begin with Josh, or the other students in class? How do I fix this so that all students learn some good lessons about tolerance? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) This problem is the teacher's fault because he assumed that he was getting free or reduced lunch. I think that the teacher should have a personal meeting with the student to apologize, and also to explain that having government help is not necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully the one on one meeting will help eliminate the problem, and then after the students may be more willing to accept the child. |
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