November 16. 2011
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Page 7
Pushing Past Your Comfort Zone
Michelle Obama tells
students to confront fears
First lady Michelle Obama gives a student a hug after speaking to a group of high school students
at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (AP photo)
Parent’s
Corner
in Ko\ Hi kmm )\
Teachers Poorly Prepared
P arent's P ream ble: I will
ensure m y ch ild receives a
quality education. I f I don't
fig h t f o r m y ch ild 's ed u ca ­
tion, no one else will. It's
worth the effort, m y child's
fu tu r e depends upon me.
Recently eight current Port­
land area teachers and adm in­
istrators met and discussed the
teaching training they received
at Portland State U niversity.
All eight individuals obtained
bach elo r's and m aster's d e ­
grees, and com bined they have
over 70 years of teaching ex­
perience.
The com m on them e all eight
e d u c a to rs sh ared w as how
poorly prepared they were to
teach children. All stated that
PSU did not teach them how to
teach children to read, write or
how to teach math.
W h en a s s ig n e d to th e ir
schools, the principals w anted
teachers who can teach chil­
dren to read, but during their
undergraduate and graduate
school studies, the educators
o f the future were not given
any instruction, clues or hints
how to teach reading.
As one o f the teachers ex­
plained, why would the com ­
plete lack o f practical experi­
ence be such an issue? B e­
cause w ithout that training, a
(AP) — M ichelle O bam a in C h ic a g o to c o lle g e at
told high school students tak­ Princeton. She said she won­
ing part in a m entoring pro­ dered whether she'd be able to
gram at G eorgetow n U niver­ compete with classmates who
sity last week that being m ar­ were wealthier and had gone to
ried to the president can be some of the best schools in the
scary at tim es, because he world. But she said she was
makes the family get out o f its willing to work hard and found
com fort zone.
her strengths.
The first lady urged students
"One of my strengths was
not to let fear guide them after a that I had a big mouth, and I liked
student asked about being wor­ to talk a lot," she said, adding that
ried about going away to col­ she tells her own daughters not
lege.
to be afraid to speak up.
"I mean this is scary," she
She said her advice for col­
said. "Shoot, being married to lege students is not to procrasti­
Barack Obama? He's got big nate, to ask for help and not to
plans. He's always pushing us get into credit card debt.
beyond our comfort zones, and
"So in college buy what you
I'm dragged along going, 'What's can afford, which for most col­
he doing now? No, not this.'"
lege students is nothing," she
She told the group of about 50 said.
students from schools in M ary­
The students visited classes
land, Washington and Virginia and toured the Georgetown cam­
that she had her own doubts pus before spending about an
about going from a public school hour with the first lady.
teacher entering a Portland 40 students and effectively
learn everything on the job."
Public Schools classroom is lit­ teach them all.
"PSU p ro fe sso rs h av e n 't
erally learning on the job, left
"This is impossible if you have been in a public school class­
to get the training the best way not been taught how to relate to
room for decades. They have
they can.
a diverse student population," theory, but no current experi­
The eight instructors also one of the teachers said. “We
ence with the 21st century
said they all received inad­ did not learn effective class­
child," the teacher said.
equate preparation to success­ room management or how to
Ron H ern d o n is a lo n g ­
fully work with an ethnically- effectively engage parents in
tim e a d v o c a te f o r e d u c a ­
d iv erse student p opulation. their children's education. We re­
tio n a l o p p o r tu n itie s fo r
They found this alarm ing when ceived no knowledge of how to
A fric a n -A m erica n children.
c o n sid erin g m any P o rtlan d deal with special needs children.
He has se rv e d as d ire c to r
area schools have m inority Overall, I felt unprepared for the
o f H e a d S ta rt in P o rtla n d
populations that range from 30 real world of teaching and had to sin c e 1975.
to well over 60 percent.
"Out o f roughly 18 months v
o f graduate school training, I |
a
received approxim ately tw o I
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weeks (nine days) of diversity I
training,” one of the teachers I
said .‘‘During that time not once I
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