Friday, February 17, 2012
Bias
Naturally it is uncomfortable to admit to any biases we might have against other people. I think for an educator it might be even more so because we have a professional standard that we must uphold and that includes an ethical and moral presence in our classroom. But lets face it, everyone has a bias because those are normal feelings that have been demonstrated for us or learned through experiences. I have more than one bias but what I try to remeber is that like our students, people are individuals as well and I try really hard not to judge people before I get to know them. I am biased against morbidly obese people, super religious people, really rich people, really poor people, drug addicts/alcoholics, I mean the list goes on. Even though I am educated in people's differences and I understand that there are many reasons for weight issues, addictions and other life paths I still have biased first impressions of certain groups of people. This can affect a teacher's ideas about students in their classrooms. I think the most important thing that a teacher can practice in their classroom is not letting biases impact their impressions of their students. You must get to know your students and their support group (parents, family members, etc) before you create an opinion about them. I think this is a good rule of thumb for building relationships all aspects in yor life.
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Hi Kristen!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!!! I think that many people, my self included, can relate to your feeling and biases. As human beings I think it is natural to have first impressions, even if they may not be the correct ones. I absolutely agree that the best way to overcome biases such as these is to simply be aware of your feelings and to make every attempt to keep them out of the classroom. Getting to know students and their families, as with anyone, seems to me to be the best way to eliminate negative or incorrect first impressions/ biases.
Hello Kristen, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with you and Lauren about first impressions and how to eliminate them if they are incorrect. However, the critical point is how are we going to proceed once we confirm our impressions. Certainly being aware of our biases will helps us, I think.
Kristen: It was very interesting to read your blog and I agree even as educated individuals there are just certain things that can affect our first impressions of people, and those first impressions are very hard to overcome. But in my opinion realizing and being aware of biases that we have is the key to being able to address them and keeping them from having negative affects on our classrooms.
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