Lessons at the Kitchen Table

Lessons at the Kitchen Table

Review

Assuming

In the article “Lessons at the kitchen table,” the author is assuming that the approach of paying immigrants visits in their home, will be sustainable (Ginsberg 2007, 56-62). While the approach helps give some basic understanding of the culture, values, knowledge, and understanding of a particular group, it is not possible to maintain the procedure. The number of immigrants in American schools continues to rise. That poses a challenge to schools that are constraint with resources and more especially the staff. The teacher-student ratio could only be appropriate in disseminating knowledge in a confined school environment. The schools have strict curricula to complete. Possibly, schools may be required to create time outside normal school hours to do the visits. That will mean extract costs for schools.

Agreeing

One important argument that I agree with the article is that American society continues to become more diverse each. In a classroom environment, that is causing a significant challenge. The current pedagogies may not be appropriate to all learners. The immigrants are drawn from different cultures. They have their own values, traditions, knowledge, and experience. Meaningful learning can only happen if the learners are involved in developing a curriculum that supports inclusive learning (Ginsberg 2007, 56-62). In that regard, I support the idea of interacting with the immigrants’ learners and families to get a better history of their lives. Notably, the information collected helps to prepare a teaching plan that incorporates complicated lives and experiences. Most significantly, the teachers and schools’ administrators, at large, to become culturally competent. For instance, the schools may not only discover and appreciate the weaknesses some of the learners may have but also see those cultural strengths they capitalize on learning.

Arguing

I wish to argue that the article is aimed at helping teachers, school administrators, and curriculum developers understand the challenges posed by a diverse society in a classroom environment. It is emerging that no single approach can fit all the needs the learners have. Since any approach used is learner-centered, it is difficult for teachers to meet all expectations the learners have (Ginsberg 2007, 56-62). Nevertheless, the article seems to suggest that it is needful to consider improving the current available by incorporating the more desired approaches to teaching. Unfortunately, that is not possible if there is no adequate information to base some strategies. The article is of the view that visiting immigrant families will provide a humble opportunity to achieve that. The teachers can learn from parents, guardians, and the learners themselves in an informal way. That will allow them to understand the variations that exist across different cultural groups in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Aspiring

In the article, what is aspire about the article is how the teachers will interact with the immigrant leaners. Notably, only a few teachers who could be culturally competent. They may not have the capacity to address cultural issues in a learning environment. In that regard, we anticipate disconnect when linking the information collected from the field to a classroom environment (Ginsberg 2007, 56-62). Perhaps, the article should have explained some of the strategies to use in making teachers culturally competitive. The teachers ought to bring what they discover from the visits to the curriculum and implement it. Perhaps, that calls for the need to consider retraining the teachers on how to maintain warm relationships with the learners and some of the compelling experiences they must pay attention to.

Reference

Ginsberg, Margery. 2007. Lessons at the kitchen table: Home visits with recent immigrant families can lead to culturally relevant teaching—when solid preparation points the way,            56-62. Education leadership. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.