Trouble makers
By Shalaby
connections and quotes
Anthonys
“Teacher preparation programs around the country train new teachers to believe that these less-than-human responses are strategies of good classroom management. These often idealistic and earnest teachers-to-be are taught that good teachers command control over students, and they are encouraged to learn to use behavioral systems of reward and punishment that are actually more appropriate for training animals than for educating free human beings.” While reading the preface of the book TroubleMakers, I thought about what I learned in Educational psychology class and my own experiences in a classroom being a student and a student teacher. When I read the quote above in the preface I remembered learning exactly what that quote is saying. I remember learning that we could train children just like we can train animals with the award and punishment process. As I was reading about Anthony, I remembered all the Anthonys I encountered. As a student, I was very quiet, had good grades, always followed the rules, and overall was a good student. Being the student I was, I never understood why Anthony acted the way he did. As a student, I always thought things like“Why does Anthony not do his work? It’s literally so easy,” or “Anthony is so disrespectful to the teacher. What’s his problem?”. Anthony was always loud and I did not like that and neither did I care to know why he was like that. I remember most teachers would yell at Anthony, call an administrator or the principal on Anthony, or give Anthony detention, but there were only a few teachers who never yelled or raised their voice at Anthony, called the administration on him, or even gave him detention. I always wondered why those teachers never did anything about him. Instead, they would talk to him, and as a student, I thought Anthony should have gotten a beating. However, now that I am older and learning more each day, I am able to understand why Anthony was acting that way. There was a reason behind it. I was now able to think back and understand why those teachers never punished Anthony for being so loud. Taking away his education like suspention, detention or expulsion is not a form of effective learning as the preface states. Not every child comes from the same background, and the ones being loud are the ones crying for help, and sometimes all teachers do instead of helping them punish them. As a student teacher, whenever I have Anthony in the classroom, I go and help Anthony do his work or even talk to him. So, while reading the preface, I was able to make this connection between the reading and my own experience with Antony.
