There is no doubt that this is a difficult time to be a child and a difficult time to be a teacher in America. But the ways in which teachers talk about their students, no matter how problematic they might be, have a very powerful effect on educational outcomes. Language can convey the dedication of teachers to the highest possible standard of service to students or it can convey a lack of accountability and the absence of faith in the ability of students to change and grow. Likewise, language can protect the confidentiality of personal information about students and their families or it can betray serious confidences and damage the respect of everyone around us for the children in our care. This labeling has undergirded school practices such as selection or rejection for special programs, classification of students, grouping and ordering of students and social organization inside school buildings.
Language thus forms a powerful judgment which has a lasting impact on children.
The most important ethic in the profession of teaching is the one which states that no child be harmed in the process of education. One only need for a moment to think of hearing his or her own child discussed in negative terms and dismissed as a failure inside a school to know how harmful and painful such an experience can be. First of all, the potential of the child to change and the potential of the teacher to affect that change must be central to educational language. Labeling should not be used to dismiss or degrade, but rather to worry or question or wonder how we can best serve a child with an identifiable problem. She does have fetal alcohol syndrome, but the children and I enjoy having her in our classroom.