October 7, 2014
POOR Magazine’s Newsroom this September was the first meeting I’ve been to with a youth leadership component. No matter what school a child goes to people have to be mindful of how they treat the children regardless of age or ability. I am thankful to spend time with youth from Homefulness, because the kids and the teachers at DEEcolonize Academy stand for unity and a family-orientated approach.
I told the story of a young girl who goes to Presidio Middle School to the youth at DEEcolonize Academy. When they heard how oppressively she was treated, they wanted to go to the school and talk to the principal!! They do not know the girl I know but they had the mentality to uplift someone to resist oppressive disrespectful treatment in middle school. It made me feel that this was a good subject to talk about because a lot of our youth are stirred the wrong way, but DEEcolonize Academy is the opposite: we encourage each other from the top down and from the oldest to the youngest.
There are a lot of studies about how humans learn things from the beginning of birth. Evidently, when you are a child you learn a lot easier then teenagers or adults. Furthermore, having a child in your hands, whether physically or emotionally, is a serious matter. I sincerely believe teachers, mothers, fathers, siblings, and various other influences can teach a child to perform different ways.
I have worked at the Youth Guidance Center, Girls 2000 in Hunters Point, and in pre-k. Usually problems form because of a teacher or outside environments. I thought I was really good with children until I started conducting classes and being an authority. In a classroom you have to learn every child’s behaviors and boundary points. When children look to a teacher they expect the teacher to know everything. Which is not possible, but to children it is. The reason why I am touching these subject matters is because of what a little girl in my hood went through with the mis-treatment of her teacher.
“I am intimidated and embarrassed, because math is difficult for me and the teacher made me feel inferior, because I wasn’t fast enough for him when I counted numbers.” said Errata, a young girl who has just started sixth grade at a local public school in San Francisco. Teaching a child with a domestic violence in their home life is serious, and Errata suffers massive stress disorder at the young age she is. The horrors of her past haunt her every day.
The teacher in math class tore her paper in half in front of the whole class. These are the exact things that hinder a child’s growth in education and every other aspect of self-development. A lot of people may think this is insignificant but I sincerely believe teachers like this must be evaluated. That one incident can either make her or break her, and according to Errata she is now more than ever scared to learn math because she felt like she was slow in the first place and now after this incident she is going to struggle with her confidence.
Children are master minds, and they are our future and I wanted to write about this because these small things get overlooked and a lot of people do not realize what effect it can have on a child’s growth and development.