This week we talked about poverty and abuse and how it can impact learning. While poverty is easy to define, abuse doesn’t have that luxury. What some see as abuse, others see as discipline. A thought that came to me during class is that, even with discipline, if any action drives away the spirit, it’s not conducive to the development of the child. We discussed different types of abuse (neglect, physical, sexual and emotional) and the influence of substance abuse by the parents. The hard thing as educators is that there’s little we can do to prevent either. While we can watch for the signs of abuse and the effects of poverty, we can’t stop a parent from hitting or neglecting their child and we can’t provide food and clothing for students that need it. One thing we can do to help, actually are required by law, is Mandatory Reporting.
I liked the insights that you gave for this past week's discussion. I especially liked how you received revelation on the fact that if your discipline is driving away the spirit thing it is more than likely considered abuse. That helps me to better understand how to go about with discipline with both my students and my own children. It is great to know and comforting to have the Spirit as our guide during the mortal probation. I hope that I will be able to be in tune to what the Spirit is telling me at all times so that I can do that which is best for me and those around me too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts about last weeks learning material. I agree with John about how discipline can cause the spirit to leave. This is a valid point about how even though we recognize the different signs of abuse and that we can report it but when they leave our classrooms there isn't much that we can do. But there is something we can do and I really liked reading the link that you provided in the mandatory Reporting article.
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