Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

“If they see drug dealers, they’ll think that’s why you’re so dumb. My street is so nasty, and its hard to walk by. You can see the needles.” ~ Veronica (page 7).

This excerpt of the book is in the first chapter in the section talking about “teacher tours”. This is when teachers can go on a tour of a student's neighborhood, (students in the back seat and two teachers in the front). This gives teachers an opportunity to see where their students live and how their surroundings are, good or bad. Students are encouraged to point out places of interest in their neighborhood.

This part of the chapter really stuck out to me. I thought it was a real good idea to have teachers go on tours of their children’s neighborhoods, especially when the teacher is not from their student’s surroundings. The quote I chose to use at the top by Veronica, really stood out to me because I cannot even fathom what it is like to see this, let alone grow up in an area like this. If this is where some children live and grow up then I have a lot to learn about the “real world” outside of the communities I have lived in.