In fact, with many kiddos there are often more cumulative or intense tears with some
of the more integrative approaches than parents are prepared for, simply because there is more active
interruption to the child's
learning process from parents as they try to help them
learn how to get from one sleep cycle to the next on their own.
As an educator, you know well how you must to be able to maintain the mental skillfulness and agility to
process many variables in everyday teaching practice, such as students» prior knowledge, the primary purpose and goal
of a lesson, sequence
of learning activities, time constraints,
interruptions throughout the school day, and on and on.
In urban schools students come and go all day.No 45 minutes is like the time that preceded it or the time that will follow.Urban schools report 125 classroom
interruptions per week.Announcements, students going, students coming, messengers, safety aides, and intrusions by other school staff account for just some
of these
interruptions.It is not unusual for students to stay on task only 5 or 10 minutes in every hour.Textbook companies and curriculum reformers are constantly thwarted by this reality.They sell their materials to schools with the assurance that all the students will
learn X amount in Y time.They are continually dismayed to observe that an hour
of school time is not an hour
of learning time.Many insightful observers
of life in urban schools have pointed out that it is incredibly naive to believe that
learning of subject matter is the main activity occurring in these schools.If one observes the activities and events which actually transpire — minute by minute, hour by hour, day in and day out — it is not possible to reasonably conclude that
learning is the primary activity
of youth attending urban schools.What does the
process of changing what one does every 45 minutes and even the place where one does it portend for fulfilling a job in the world
of work?If one is constantly being reinforced in the behaviors
of coming, going, and being interrupted, what kind
of work is one being prepared for?