This class has been quite an eye opener for me this semester. I knew things like drugs, alcohol and sex were problems we were going to have to encounter as teachers. Since I was focusing on younger elementary, I thought why do I need to be concerned with these topics? They won't effect me. But to my suprise they effect me a whole lot more than I could ever have imagined. In our Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco presentation yesterday, the statistics said that the boys begin drinking alcohol as early as 11 years old and girls at 13 years old. 11 years old! I wasn't even aware of what alcohol really was at the age of 11, let alone drugs and tobacco. The other statistic that the average student had been exposed to marijuana by the age of 14 also shocked me. This saddens me that our students are losing their innocence at an earlier and earlier age. I can only imagine what will happen to the age of innocence if we lowered the drinking age to 18. Children will begin to be exposed to alcohol at what? 7 or 8 years old? It would be a sad day and age to live in the country if it came to that.
The other topic we covered in class that I found interesting was the topic of foster care. Shelby's presentation was very eye opening for me. I had always known what foster care was essentially but never knew how the family homes functioned as a whole. It was interesting to hear a personal account from Shelby and actually made me consider doing that myself when I got older.
ED460 Personal and Social Well Being is a course taken by college students in education during their student teaching semester. Topics covered include: poverty, child abuse, bullying, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, counselors' role in school, adolescents and choices, and the use of technology.
I agree that intuitively, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco do not seem to affect elementary school kids. However, last spring break I visited my sister in Arizona. She taught 3rd graders on a reservation. When I observed in her classroom, I was shocked at how many of the kids (nine-year-olds, mind you)were talking about drugs, alcohol, and sex. After school that day, I questioned my sister about it, and she said that it was very common on this reservation for kindergarteners to show up drunk or high. Because the parents didn't object to this lifestyle, the kids grew up in that culture. Even though it is very shocking to some of us who grew up in extremely different settings, we, as educators will have to deal with things like this, things that seem absolutely preposterous.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked Shelby's presentation. You can tell that he was greatly influenced by his mother's decision to foster kids and that is why he does it today. I think forstering children would be something I could really enjoy doing. It would be a great experience for my family and I, and i think I would be learning more than the kid(s) would.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, i also think I would do it differently than Shelby. He obviously had his own unique likes and ways for doing things. I don't know if I could handle just teenage boys. The amount of man in the house would drive me CrAzY! I know I could take any age, but not only teenage boys. I would need more of a balance. Good post, Sam!