Tammie Zentgraf

EDUW 695 Ethics and Issues in Education

Filter Reflection:

The decision to teach has been filled with a long journey of other professions

that kept bringing me back to a personal mission, or motto if you will, of helping

others be successful. Ive worked with children as a babysitter, nanny (paid for

college by doing this), youth director for a church and then as a middle school

mathematics teacher in south Texas. I have mingled in there working in the

business world for eight years and now working at a sand-mine while I get my

teaching credentials situated here in Wisconsin. All of these jobs have helped me

identify my true passion for the vocation of teaching. I love helping others grow and

flourish and teaching is a fabulous place to practice this daily!

When teaching in south Texas, the economic situation was always a present

factor in working with my students. I taught sixth grade mathematics at Roma

Middle School, Roma is a border town between the U.S. and Mexico. The county

was among the poorest five counties in the state, the student population was nearly

completely poverty stricken and the district was 99% Hispanic. An economic filter

was definitely a factor in my role there as a teacher.

Many of my decisions were influenced by the known home life of my

students. I knew who would likely not have a meal from Friday lunch through

Monday morning breakfast at school. Also, who would be unable to complete their

homework because they were caring for their younger siblings and/or working to

sell things to support their family. Peanut butter sandwiches were tucked into
backpacks on Friday afternoon as I said goodbye to my students for the weekend.

There were so many physical well-being issues that had to be tended to before

students were in a position that they could learn. Our school nurse was kept very

busy keeping the students cared for as best as possible as most didnt have a

regular physician tending to them.

Instructional decisions were also definitely influenced by this economic filter.

As a mathematics teacher, I was frustrated by the current standard requirement of

having word problems for most of our work. This created barriers for students who

could otherwise be very strong math students from a computation stand point but

they struggled with low vocabulary simply due to their limited life experiences. For

example, a word problem asked the students to determine the area of the courtyard

in the given picture. Many of my students were unaware of what a courtyard was

and therefore got stuck on what to do, there were multiple things in the picture you

could have calculated area for. This wasnt a math barrier; it was a vocabulary and

life-experience barrier. This type of situation occurred frequently and I found I had

to take time with each lesson to provide the scaffolds necessary to help them

understand some of what I thought would have been knowledge acquired through

life-experience. I remember being so caught off guard when I had to explain what

an elevator was to my students as some had never been to a building that had one.

The tallest building in Roma was three stories but contained no elevator.

Interactions with parents were another area where economics were a

significant factor. The value of students being in school was sometimes a tough sell

when the parents sometimes saw only the economic loss to their family by losing a

worker or child care provider for their smaller children. I could understand their

plight yet also worked as an advocate for their childs education. The parents
wanted a better life for their children but since they were struggling to survive their

children were part of their solution to survive financially.

At first when I started to teach I was furious with these parents, thinking I

how can you keep your child home from school, and what do you mean, they

havent had a meal since they left school Friday? But then I started to learn more

and visit with these families and really had to remove my rose-colored glasses. I

was raised on a small dairy farm in central Wisconsin, the youngest of five children.

We were affected by the farm crisis days in the 80s and lost our family farm

through a foreclosure. Money was tight but we always had shelter, food and basic

necessities. That is not true for many of my students. Homes were sometimes a

room with a dirt floor, tin roof and walls, possibly electricity, and running water was

a luxury some of my students did not have access too. Abandoned buildings were

used as shelters for those without any structure to call home. The teachers were

considered the wealthy of the community and comparatively, that was very much

true. It was humbling and it made me realize that it was a genuine hardship for

them to relinquish their child for the school day because it truly may keep some

beans and rice from appearing on the family dinner table that day. Thankfully, not

all my students lived at this level of poverty, but poverty at some level affected the

majority of my students. This impact extended to how I taught and what essentials

needed to be in place before instruction could be effective.

Having had this class and talking more about filters that influence our

decisions and choices, I think my ideology of filters have definitely broadened. I see

how many different types of experiences and situations create perspectives that will

influence both my own thinking and of those I encounter. I believe the economic

filter will be important to be aware of and will continue to factor into my classroom
instructional decisions as well as guide the general conversations geared at building

rapport with students. I have learned the importance of working to understand the

perspective and the plight of others in order to better serve them and to help them

identify and build on their own strengths. My personal goal is still to help others be

successful and I am anxious to continue applying this philosophy to my new

classroom this fall.