(no subject)
Erik Stouffer
Sociology 1A P.2
January 21, 2007
Research Project Step 4: Interpretations
Key of Subjects:
- Subject A - 11th Grade student, top of the class, six or seven A.P.’s.
- Subject B - 11th Grade Student with decent to exceptional grades, No A.P.’s.
- Subject C - 8th Grade Student, A Student, Honors English and Math courses.
- Teacher A - Is An Elementary School Teacher for Gifted Students at a Magnet
and Charter School.
- Teacher B - Middle School English Teacher at LACES; longevity of her career
is three years.
- Teacher C - Middle School Science Teacher at LACES; longevity of his career
is your years
- Teacher D - High School Gov/Econ Teacher at LACES; longevity of his career is
unknown, but ranges from ten to thirty years.
- Substitute - Substitute at LACES; Longevity at LACES is two years.
The work ethics of a student are shaped by many different factors. These are some of the key causes: A parents influence; the skills that teachers instill upon the student; how much the student utilizes those skills and tools; and the relationship that student is able to develop with his teachers, as well as his peers. Although, these are a few of the major factors came across during this research report, there are undoubtedly a number of more factors. Originally I did not have a thesis, but a question that helped address this topic. Regardless, I did have biases that worked in correlation to my results. I was most likely able to understand possible answers to the question, because of the fact that I am a student myself experiencing the development and shaping of my own work ethic.
Parents have a strong amount of influence on a kid while he is young, because they have the child five years before he first comes to school. “Half of all that a child learns, is done by the time he’s two,” said Subject D, an elementary school that is both a magnet and charter school. She went on to talk about its meaning: parents attitudes towards work, love, relationships, authority, their children and all other components that make up their life, effect how the child thinks and acts accordingly. Later in life, they are remain important figures in ensuring that the kid receives good grades and follows the teachers rules, as well as, advice and that they are learning all they need to. This means that the parents are responsible for either helping their child when he needs it, or by getting him into a tutor program, or even by just talking to the teacher about helping him on the everyday level. Subject C told me that her parents help her with her English work, and that her dad helps her with art as it is a hobby of his. While his parents can not help her with her Math homework, her two siblings can and do. Subject A has to go to her classmates when she needs help in class because her parents immigrated to America and are not familiar with American studies. The idea behind the parent’s responsibility to develop a child’s work ethic then becomes that they must instill upon the child their responsibilities in life, and then keep on top of them, looking after how they are doing, and helping them adjust the ways in which they accomplish their work.
These responsibilities of boss play a powerful role in the child’s early development and begin to recede by middle school. This is why Teacher B says that: “It’s harder for parents [to control teens] in teen years-teens rebel.” She explains this to be the reason Middle School is so important: “[Thus,] it’s up to middle school teachers to say here’s what you have to do or else you’ll pay the price. Teen needs to pick up the thought that they control their life and they need to take hold of that.” Unfortunately too many kids don’t see their parents working hard, or they have parents that are split up and work long shifts. Most of the time, Teacher B believes, the kid will be more free to get into trouble. Although this can happen, it is also true that the student could dislike his living conditions so much, and hate that his parents have to work three shifts and don’t get to spend enough time with him, that he would work extremely hard to get out of the situation he is in. This situation is true for Subject B as her dad works a low-paying job as a floor-manager at BestBuy and her mother sells supplement shakes out of her house. Subject B also said that her parents influence her to do well in another way, because they will not accept a grade such as a C. This helps her work harder, because she said that if it were not for them pressuring her to do above average, she would be just fine with getting C grades. Whether parents are helping their kids out with homework, getting on their case about doing well, or ensuring they know the importance of hard work and a solid understanding of why they are at school they play a large role in helping to jumpstart, and guide the development of their children’s work ethic.
Once the child is five he is ready for school. There he will pick up the tools that it will take him to do very well: to be on top; to remember what is due; to successfully organize his thoughts into sentences, paragraphs, essays, projects and speeches; and to accomplish everything in the allotted time. Two last skills are picked up over time, and sometimes with the help of the teacher, and to a lesser extent, the parent: study skills, and test-taking skills. Asking everyone what they thought about when one should or does learn their study skills, which are the key to good work ethic, everyone agreed upon Elementary school. Teacher B however, said that she felt that it should, and that she does continue to teach study skills through middle school. Teacher A, being an Elementary School teacher explained one of their tools for success. They keep the students organized by giving them each a folder for every subject. She then has them keep every homework they do in a binder at home. The homeworks they get assigned nightly however go on the left side of their folder. On the right, is a sheet which the mother or father signs saying that they saw their child’s homework, and that it was completed. Thus, they keep the parent involved in the child’s affairs so that it is on them to know where their kid is at, and keep up with his workload. When they finish the homework they move it from the left side of the folder to the right, in front of the Homework Check-Off sheet. At the end of each week, they get an evaluation form of what the student completed or didn’t, as well as the bulletin. This tool is just one of the many that she employs to keep them on top of themselves.
To make sure the student is a part of his own experience, he has to lead an evaluation every semester. Teacher A believes that this is better “Instead of saying, ‘here’s your grade.’” She says, “This makes it very much on the student to explain how he feels he is doing and reflect on his performance and then listen to feedback fro the teacher. All of this, the parent hears and finds out about in the conference.
Student B disagreed with the concept even more than Teacher B. Student B said that, “The biggest thing a teacher can do in Elementary School is be fun and teach what’s right and wrong and make kids interested and enjoy the day.” This is a strong idea, because it strongly supports the idea that kids need to have a good strong relationship with their teachers. If they have fun and are engaged they will be free to learn more.
If they have good experiences with teachers’ early on, it will make them understanding and open to the teachers. They will in turn trust future teachers, whose jobs she feels it will be to teach them the lessons about History, Math and English, along with the study skills and habits it takes to accomplish appropriate learning. Regardless of when it is that a student learns what it takes to make it through school-time management, organization, essay writing, grammar and basic math, memorization, and study skills as well as test-taking skills-these are probably the most important tools for success necessary to have a strong work ethic, or more accurately, one that can accomplish tasks required.
This led me to believe that students were subject to the Control Theory. They were willing to cooperate with Mr. Jameson and accomplish their work, even getting involved in the discussions, but they weren’t so much when the substitute came to class.
Putting the work off until later was no good idea, but because there was no one telling them to do it, they did not care enough to get it done. This misuse of time, creates more stress later, as well as, what is for the most part, rushed, sloppy work. It only benefits this group in the short-run, because while they were able to mess around, and have fun then, they would have to work hard later. It also gave them the disadvantage of not being able to work together. If they were to do it at home then they would not be able to communicate with each other about it as much, and there would not be as much of a partnership involved in getting it done. Moreover, if they were going to do it by themselves at home in a free environment, when they wouldn’t in a closed environment, the chances that they would are lessened.