There is a story from long ago
about a person standing at the Fork in the Road with one path going to the left
and another path going to the right.
A young child comes running down a mountain behind the Fork in the Road. The child was yelling, “Help me! Help me! There is a man with a hatchet chasing me and he
wants to kill me. Don’t tell him which direction I am going!” and the child continues running.
Now the person standing at the Fork in the
Road knows the direction the young child ran. Not long after the child ran by the man with a hatchet came
running down the mountain. He
yells at the person standing at the Fork in the Road asking, “Which direction
did the child go?” The person standing
at the Fork in the Road knows which direction the child went but did not say
anything. The man with the hatchet
chose a direction on his own and kept running in pursuit of the child.
The end.
We can look at it the story and
know that if the person standing at the Fork in the Road told the man chasing
the child which direction the child went the child will be killed but if he tells
the man the other direction then he will be lying. No matter what he would tell the man chasing the child the person standing at the Fork in the Road will have to live with the decision forever.
We know that everyday educators are
constantly standing at many Forks in many Roads and we need to make sound
decisions. So, what does this
story have to do with us as educators?
Well, let us say you have a student
who has not handed in homework for a few days and did not do well on a test and
has missed a few days of school as well. You also know the child has an ill
parent. You and your team have a
strict homework policy and it is only fair to the other students in the classes
that the student who has not handed in assignments should be treated the same
as other students, after all if you let one student hand in late homework then others
students should also be able to hand in late homework.
Share your thoughts about the story
of the person standing at the Fork in a Road and connect to it at least one possible
dilemma as an educator you may face.
Write how you might determine your decisions based on your dilemma.
20 comments:
Educators face many challenges daily.
It is very important for educators to be flexible with the students that need help. There are many ways an educator can help a student who needs help. However, it is important for the educator to be fair and equal to all the students. Every child's life should be positively impacted by their teacher.
Well as I was reading the first couple sentences I started to think about those kids at Sandy Hook. One of the teachers who was killed, Victoria Soto (man at the fork) told the killer Adam Lanza(man with the hatchet) that her kids were in the gym when in reality the kids were hiding in cupboards and closets. She had to make that desicion to save her kids and in turn she lost her life because of it. This shooting is just one of the horrific things that we as teachers will have to face. We have to protect our kids wether it be from getting hurt in the classroom with a pair of scissors or from a mad man with a shot gun.
My thoughts about the person standing at the Fork in a Road made me think of many issues I will face as a future educator. Many students from CPS come from broken homes and life situations that will blow your mind. There are times when you will notice one of your students acting differently and will have to be that positive influence in their life. If I was the man at the Fork I would tell the killer the direction the child did not go through. As future educators we need to protect our students from anyone and anything. I believe every educator should do whatever it takes to protect their students, so they can have a successful future.
"Standing at a fork in the road" was a very interesting story that can be related to various scenarios. As an educator there are many different forks in the road that we will have to choose from. For instance, you may not agree with the curriculum given or with what the principal wants you to teach. You may feel that instead of helping your students it will only confuse them or/and have a negative impact on them. You want to do what is right for your students, but you also want to keep your job. What do you do then?
I agree with Ms. Caraballo when she said that we need to protect our students from anyone and anything. And there will be times we need to stand up for what we believe is right regardless of how it might affect us. The well-being of our students should be our primary concern.
As teachers, our, “Fork in the Road”, will appear in many ways and reveal itself in different forms. Perhaps, as conflict of interests between administration and teachers, disagreements in pedagogical approaches among teaching staff, violence in the school community, known hostility in students familial structures, or bullying among school children. Although, the list can seem endless and new situations might frequently surface—as educators, we must prioritize and put the well-being of our students first. We need to be well-grounded in our beliefs, have a clear vision of who we are, and an unwavering commitment to those entrusted to us. In this way, when faced with adversity we can make a sound decision according to the situation before us, always with student’s best interests in mind.
Not only as educators but human beans we face problems and dilemmas or "forks in the Road". As an educator we are always aware of the rules that we must uphold and the image that we portray to our students and other students as well. We have to be careful what we say how we say it and when we say it. We are constantly being viewed and judged.
When making these decisions we have to be aware that it can have a grand impression on our students. They may take our advice, our words, our actions to heart and keep them with them forever.
With all that being said i believe that as teachers we need to be ourselves and should be the good people that are, in doing so you can be the best teacher and the best decisions for anything dilemma that you are faced with.
To begin, I would tell the man with the hatchet that the boy went the other way. There is no way I would tell the man which way the boy went, that would be like saying that it is okay to kill the boy. On the other hand, I would have to live with lying to the man. I think I can do that if it means that I would save the boy’s life. As an educator, it is important to realize that there are going to be students with different needs and circumstances in their lives. For example, let’s say that Joe and Mary are two students in my classroom. Let say that Joe comes from a dysfunctional family; he is the oldest of six children. He is twelve years old and he is currently in 5th grade. He has never met his dad and has never had a male figure at home. His mom got pregnant at the age of sixteen and had five more children by the age of twenty-two. She is a single mom and she has never been employed for longer than two months. About a year ago she was diagnosed with a serious illness and has been in and out of the hospital. When mom is in the hospital Joe and his sister take care of the younger siblings. There have been times when Joe or one of his siblings has gotten sick at school and they would have to sit in the nurse’s office because there is no one available to pick them up.
Mary on the other hand comes from A NON-DYSFUNCTIONAL family. Her parents have been married for 15 years; she is the second child of three children. Her father has been employed as a computer specialist for twenty years. Her mother is a stay home mom and has a home base business which generates a good income. Mom spends most of the afternoon with Mary and her siblings. She helps them with their homework and has a reading block everyday with each of the children. She makes sure that Mary and her siblings finish all of their homework. She volunteers three times per week at school. The teachers and school officials know her and she is available to come to the school at anytime.
I think that as an educator I would have to see the needs of each one of my students. I cannot expect every student to perform the same. I think that I would have to be flexible and willing to accommodate to the needs of my students. Joe for example needs to be supported by someone, he needs to know that there is someone that is willing to help him. As we can see at home he is not getting any support. As an educator I might be the only one available to nourish and help him. In my career as an educator I will come across many Joe’s, I think that this will be the opportunity to show those students how important they are to me and to the world. I feel that "One can make a difference on a child’s life."
Whoever we are now or later, we will face many obstacles in our lives as in the story "Folk in a Road". The decisions we make should be the ones we strongly agree the most. When making a decision, we can’t always know the outcome(s) of the decision we made. How do we know that the two roads in the story “Folk in a Road” would meet up down the roads? I believe the students and the teachers always experiences difference obstacles every day. But the most important thing is the decision they make and been able to support their decision. As an example, a teacher decided to teach the students in a different way than what the school wanted. The reason she decided was that the students will be interesting, be involve in the lesson, students are able to relate to the lesson, and will learn it faster. So believe in the decisions you make and if you regret a decision, and then make the outcome(s) to change to the way you wanted to outcome(s) to be in the end.
As a future teacher I am preparing myself to expect the unexpected when it comes to my students.
Whet Moser reported, in ChicagoMag.com, that 73% of CPS students are eligible for free and reduced lunch and 29% of CPS students are living below the poverty.
So what does this mean?
Many of our students will find themselves confused and ashamed about their economic situations. Much so often, that they may shut down and not express their feelings. Thus not allowing them to learn. We live in a society where we see more and more students who are socially and emotionally detached, and appear to struggle from a new form of "culture shock" amongst their peers.
When I read the "Fork in the Road", I immediately placed my student at the fork in the road. One example, a student does not want to be the whistle blower of their family's shortcomings or the student does not want to receive special attention or pity because of their hardships.
In my observation I have witnessed students absorbing a copious amount of relevant and irrelevant information that they do not know how to process, thus leading to psychological muddy waters.
Without proper social and emotional learning, I feel that many of our students will never get beyond Erikson's "Industry vs Inferiority" stage and will leave them doubting themselves and school system in its entirety.
So how can we make this student speak up and share? One way is to integrate social and emotional learning into our everyday curriculum. Perhaps sharing a non-fictional piece of literature will work, because this type of lesson will have an expected outcome of students gaining a two-way perspective, leading them to develop emotionally and cognitively. As a teacher i would evaluate their journal entries of these reading assignments, so I know how to approach my class as a whole.
By allowing reciprocal interactions to take place in my class, and by identifying the SE level in my class, I will be able to construct a system where all students can receive credit.
As future educators we need to understand that every student is different as has different challenges/problems. Each student comes from different family backgrounds. I believe that as educators we need to understand our students' situations and be able to accommodate and help them be able to succeed. Everyone deserves an opportunity.
The story of the person at the fork in the road is a bit reminiscent of the idea of choosing the lesser of two evils. Yes, the person at the fork in road would have to lie in order to save the child’s life but in this case, he really has no loyalty to the man with the hatchet. His consequences here are minimal, other than the idea of having to live with his lie, which I am sure is much easier than the alternative of knowing that his words led to the death of a child. Similarly, as educators, we are going be faced with these types of decisions every day and a lot of times there is no obvious choice but sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two evils for the betterment of the student. Yes, there is a homework policy; much like there will be policies we as human beings have to follow our entire lives whether it is the rules of the road or policies at a workplace. However, this policy is somewhat arbitrary because there is no direct correlation between being able to follow an arbitrary policy and student success. In the case of the student having an ill parent, s/he isn’t ignoring the policy because s/he doesn’t care; it is because his/her priorities in life are arranged a bit differently due to her circumstances. This gets back to the overall idea of appreciating generalized rules and policies but also focusing on individual education. We as educators must do our best to get to know our students as best as we can in order to better serve their needs and requirements for success. In this case, the last thing this student needs is to deal with poor grades in school when she is dealing with an ill parent at home. So while it might seem “unfair” to the other students in class that this student might be handing in homework at a later date, those other students might not have the same surrounding circumstances to deal with and should be more focused on the strategies that they need in order to be successful. And again, that does come back to the teacher knowing and recognizing those student needs as well and it becomes a juggling act. The teacher has to know his/her students well enough to know when a student is really in need of some help and leeway and when that student might be trying to take advantage of a teacher who might have flimsy policy enforcement. If a student is constantly turning in late work and/or performing poorly on tests, the teacher must inquire further rather than assume the student is lazy or disinterested. Maybe there is something else going on behind the scenes that better explains what is going on and therefore the student and teacher can work on strategies to overcome some of the problems.
First I would like to say that If I were the person at the fork on the road, to me, The obvious thing to do is to direct the man to the road that the child did not take. In the story it states that no matter what the person at the fork of the road did he/she will be doing something wrong (lying/responsible for a death)
We can use this as a metaphor in the classroom. A future educator it is not our job to treat all student equal. There will be students that require special accommodations modifications and this will seem unfair to others. Like the example in the blog about the student and the homework issue, a teacher must understand the child’s situation and make accommodations for the specific student even if the others see it as unfair. It is better to take a risk and give the child a second change to turn in homework than to be “fair” to everyone and let the student fall behind and maybe even fail.
Education should not be equal, meaning that one curriculum will not adapt to every child’s needs. We need to understand that students do not come from the same family backgrounds and upbringings and that there will be a variety of learning styles with in the students in the classroom. Us as educators have to be able to cater to all of the students yet be able to manage the classroom as a whole. One way of creating a classroom community would be to introduce different types of learning disabilities though books or other resources. This way student will be able to comprehend and have empathy for their classmates now and in the future.
The "Fork in the Road" story is a bit cliched to stay the least. Well, if we say the person standing there is actually a teacher and the child is a student then it changes the whole story. Teachers are the “role models” and the "superheroes" of the classroom. If something goes wrong, blame it on the teacher. If something goes right, well then I guess they get to keep their job for another year.
I'm writing this response as someone who is a teacher already in the classroom. I also have a child who is in middle school so what happens impacts me in both ways as a parent and as a teacher.
Reading this story, I would have liked for the person standing at the fork (if we are to assume that they are a teacher) t0 do something about this person with a hatchet. Perhaps karate chop them? Maybe they’re a gun-owning educator and they could whip out a pistol to defend the child? Pepper spray the killer? Perhaps call 911. Obviously doing nothing is not the way to go. Being just a bystander and not taking a stand isn’t setting a good example for your students or anybody really. It’s most often the choice people usually take in order to remain in their comfort zone. Or just to remain alive.
Being a teacher, you are often times pushed out of your comfort zone. Dealing with students from diverse backgrounds, socioeconomic classes, families, etc. I keep in mind that students are human beings after all. They are connected to their families and life beyond school. Yes homework is important and policies should be adhered to and fairness equated to all however, life happens. If a child has a sick parent or a death in the family or if they are sick as well then I as a teacher should understand that and work with that student. The fairness that comes in this is that I would be understanding with all my students.
My daughter was sick and scheduled for surgery during 7th grade. Her teacher wasn’t fair and took the rigid homework policy to the extreme. My daughter’s grades fell to say the least. Was that supportive of her going through a difficult time? Did she look up to this teacher? No her trust and view were all skewered because that educator didn’t care. And that’s the whole point of education for a middle schooler, which isn’t necessarily passing the ISATs, homework and perfect attendance but that the teacher demonstrates that he/she cares.
So back to the person at the fork in the road. They really need to show they care about that child and do something. Passivity isn’t going to help anybody especially in the field of education.
This story made me realize that as educators or "business managers" that we must face difficult decisions when teaching. The first dilemma I thought of being a teacher would be making sure your students are up to par with testing scores or good grades since schools are highly scrutinized for them. Your students may not be up to standards but you feel that it may be looked down upon as an educator failing to teach. I feel that new teachers may feel that the overall scores of their students reflect how well they teach so how much pressure could that have on them to keep their position? As teachers we must make sure that our students are truly understanding what is being taught and it takes deep assessment to know that students are passing or failing. It is hard to fail your students because the school has a reputation but we must be true to knowing what is best for the students and how we can do better next time through observational teaching.
The man at the fork in the road plays an impactful role in the life of the child. The man chose to do nothing. This way he had a clear conscience. However, as a teacher, that would not lead to a clear conscience for me. The idea of doing nothing and indifference is worse than making the wrong choice. I often tell my basketball players that if they do not know what they are doing I would rather have them do the wrong thing at full speed and effort than stand around and do nothing. We cannot stand back and observe the world pass us by. We must be involved. We must ask question and take a stand for what we believe in.
I am currently taking a special education class, and this quote from Richard Lovey has stuck with me since hearing it, “Fair does not mean everything is the same for everyone. Fair is whatever helps each individual be successful.” As a child and a student (and even sometimes now honestly), I was infuriated at the idea of certain people getting special treatment. I felt that everyone should be treated the same, regardless of anything else because it was not fair otherwise. However, after working with children, I have learned that everyone is never treated the same. And honestly, you cannot always have the same expectations for everyone. If a student has a traumatic even happen at home and their grades start to fall, as a teacher, I cannot let this student fail because of this. I need to find a way to help the student and if it means excusing them from an assignment or looking the other way when they have an outbursts in class, then so be it. I will need to talk to the student outside of class and find ways to help him/her, but if I say “Oh well, his/her fault.” Then I am not doing my job. I believe that there do need to be set rules, guidelines, and expectations, but there are always exceptions to the rules when need be. We cannot be heartless people who do not care about what impacts our students.
The man standing at the fork in the road had to weigh three evils: tell the man with the hatchet where the child went, lie to the man, or say nothing and fail to protect the child. While none of the three options is especially good, lying is the least dire since it has the least-detrimental consequence. While the man could have ranked the evils, their potential consequences, and chosen to lie, he did not. He chose to say nothing to the man with the hatchet, who may have then chosen the same route as the child. When choosing this option, he failed to protect the child.
As educators, we will frequently face decisions for which the options may not all be positive. We, too, will have to choose the least-evil option. However, unlike the man at the fork in the road, we must put protecting the child at the forefront. Failing to do so can affect the child in ways we never imagined, even if the consequence is less severe than that of the child in the story.
For example, say I have a student that misses an exam on a day she had an “unexcused” absence. The school policy states I am not to give her a make-up exam, since the absence is not excused. If I knew that the student had a reasonable reason for her absence, though the reason does not meet the technical standards of “excused”, I would still provide her a make-up exam. This option, though not a great one since I’m breaking policy, is better than allowing the child’s grade to suffer for a missed exam. I feel that it’s important to weigh the options and the consequences myself, rather than strictly adhering to guidelines and policies. While policies are important, protecting the child is even more so.
As I read this story and ponder what I would do, I am not questioning if I would lie or tell the truth about the direction of the child, I am instead thinking about how I should have better reacted when the child was present. As an educator you are there to teach children but you must also protect them and keep them safe. As sad as it is, this could mean from bullies at school, abusive parents at home or the unimaginable but becoming increasingly more common situation of a student or outsider coming into the school to physically harm those inside. While the later is an extreme case, the others are every day occurrences and teachers should know how they would react when faced with them.
One needs to know how to properly approach students and gain their trust so that they will talk to them about their problems. Until they trust you and know that your number one priority is their safely, they are not going to open up. If it turns out there is a student or parent either mentally or physically abusing them you must react in the best possible way for that student. Schools have programs in place for this but sometimes going strictly by the book may not be the best approach. If the situation occurs, sit down and talk to other educators, determine the best way to react and keep the student’s safety as the top priority.
I would not need to look away and hope that the man goes in the wrong direction or lie about where he had gone. I would have gone with the child and gotten him or her to safety so that the man would not even have the option to injury him/her.
"Standing at a Fork in the Road"
After reading this story, I agree with several comments. As an educator we take an oath to protect our students. That means we do what we have to, to make these kids feel safe. I understand that certain circumstances will arise while teaching and each situation is different. I believe if a student is struggling because their are extreme circumstances at home then I should be able to be flexible with that child. On the other hand if a student is not turning in homework due to laziness then, they will be rewarded with the proper grade.
Some of these struggling kids just need a little push or motivation to let them know you care.
As has been discussed at length, we have a duty to provide the best possible education to our students. The quote “young adolescents are persons first, then students” by John Lounsbury comes to mind here. This is a statement we should never forget as educators, though we are being graded on their grades, performance on tests and any other matter of measuring their intelligence, there still exists the responsibility for us to connect with the student and provide for their needs. Sometimes the need is not going to be found in a textbook, we may find that what a student needs most is a little understanding and someone to connect with on a person to person level rather than a teacher to student.
Though we may not run into a situation like this, it could be something like a pregnant student, or maybe their family member has suffered some tragedy in war or on the streets. We all come from different backgrounds but the string that connects us is the ability to show compassion and to exercise judgment. If all the students were on the same plane then I could understand the homework policy being "unfair" if applied differently to different students. But it is really hard to focus on an assignment with an empty stomach, or if a student is caring for his family members. These types of situations I feel should give us the leeway to exercise our better judgment and give leniency where needed.
The classic dilemma of what to do when faced with a no-win situation. Tell which way the child went and live with the knowledge that you probably cost the child his life. Lie to the man and live with the fact that you lied to him. The obvious choice is to lie to the man but we are lacking information to make an informed decision. We are to assume that the young, innocent child is being pursued by a large, evil, ax-wielding man. But what is the entire story? I would seek more information if possible before making a decision but if none were forthcoming, would choose to lie to the man.
How can this scenario be applied in the universe of an educator. The scenario of the homework seems like a relatively easy situation to resolve. If a student truly has issues at home that are preventing timely completion of homework or affects performance on assessments, some leeway should be given. This can be as simple as accepting late work or allowing a makeup test to be taken. As for the argument that if you let one student turn in late work you must let the others, my thoughts are that a crisis in one household does not permit laziness in another.
Aside from homework, another dilemma you could face is if a student confides in you about a problem that they don’t want anyone else to know about. If you determine that the situation can cause potential harm to the student, you are faced with a difficult decision. If I tell someone, I risk losing the students confidence, if I don’t there is a risk to the student. Depending on the severity of the risk to the student, I would seek advice from other teachers or administrators without revealing the identity of the student. If it is deemed necessary to intervene, I would explain to the student that the reason I spoke up is because I was concerned about them and, as a parent, this is how I would like the situation to be handled.
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