Youth Voices and What They Tell Us

As I read through the chapter on “Youth Voices and What They Tell Us” by Sam Intrator and Robert Kunzman the CTAC124 (Speech) class that I observed, assisted, and taught a couple of times repeatedly came to mind. This was an all-freshman class in their first semester, which brought in itself first time jitters, nerves about fitting in, and the fear of public speaking. These factors were plainly written on each student’s face as she or he walked into the class and took a seat. What was not so obvious was the cultural, ethnic, educational, social backgrounds, and experiences that wove together and shaped each student’s ability and willingness to learn. With this in mind the professor created an anonymous survey asking questions that would give her insight into the classroom dynamics. Some of the questions asked were about family, religion, travel, birthplace, happiness level, what made them unhappy, etc. In addition, the professor had each student line up across the room in order of confidence in public speaking, with a scale of one being least confident and ten being very confident. This information combined with the survey gave the professor a good beginning to understanding her class environment. She shared the results of the survey with the students, so they too could begin to understand their classmates.

What this professor implemented in her class speaks to Intrator and Kunzman’s citing Peter Smagorinsky and Cindy O’Donnell-Allen’s theory that “engagement and disengagement of individual students cannot be understood without considering students’ individual social worlds as well as their prior experiences and relationships with the school culture” (39). In this particular class the students’ previous experiences in a school setting and outside social experiences played a significant role in the dynamics of the classroom environment. As the semester played out students experienced the loss of a parent, relatives being shot, having to parent younger sibs from a distance, and the struggle of learning to manage time wisely. As an observer in the class I watched the professor maintain the delicate balance of empathizing with those outside pressures and holding the student to the class requirements. 

Intrator and Kunzman state that “students describe wanting affirmation, acceptance, and support from adults who work with them in the classroom setting. Students yearn for positive relationships with their teachers” (39). A professor from another department found that she was counseling several of her students whose outside life was impacting their performance in the classroom. She had resisted this in the past for fear of overstepping the bounds of the student/teacher relationship, but in good conscience she felt her support was best served by mentoring them through the crisis. Intrator and Kunzman go on to cite Wilson and Corbett stating that “students evaluate teachers on the basis of how caring they perceive a particular teacher to be. They define caring as ‘acting in the best interest of others’ and suggest that students intuitively understand which teachers demonstrate their caring by holding students to high standards and by ‘refusing to allow them [students] to fail’” (39). In each case of the teachers I described they demonstrated Bruce Wilson’s and H. Dickenson Corbett’s theory about caring for the whole student and not just the academic half of the student. With that said, how does a teacher navigate through all the possible scenarios that students may bring into a classroom? Is it the professor’s job to be a counselor as well as an educator?  Intrator and Kunzman go on to say that there is a need for “nonparental adults to take a sustained interest in teenagers’ lives; as adolescents undergo transitions of social definition  . . .” (39). So, if there is this need for nonparental adult interest by the professor/teacher, how does the professor/teacher accomplish this and still teach?

I have to say from my observations the speech professor did successfully engage, support, and push her students to excel not only academically, but to grow emotionally stronger as a student and, more importantly, as a person. But it was a draining semester because there were so many students that needed the nonparental adult interest.