American Education

The other day while teaching a 7th grade history class, i ran into some 'slow' students. They were labeling a map, very typical history stuff. You need to know where it is that you are learning about right? Well first of all over half of my students did the assignment wrong. They had specific instructions and few actually followed them. They had to read them to find out what to label, but they missed the rest of the assignment. They did so much more work that was actually required it was sort of funny. Then i ran into a special group of two. Their first question surprised me a little bit. They were both hispanic so i was quite surprised when they asked me to help them find Mexico. (By the way the map was from the United States down to south america). Have they never looked at a map before? Well their next question makes me think no. They were looking for Bolivia. I can understand a student not knowing where Bolivia is right away but when i went to help them they were looking in Africa. Keep in mind that they had a blank map of south america, so the maps didn't even match. When i went to help them i said, well first you need to look at south america. Her response, " which is?" I was quite surprised, but at the same time i was not.