A student, struggling with a stutter, was asked by the professor to refrain from speaking or asking questions in class. This story was picked up by the New York Times and then gained national attentions on CBS, the Washington Post, and CNN.
Phillip Garber, Jr. is a student at County College of Morris, a community college in northern New Jersey. He is a high school student and, at age 16, is taking 2 college classes this semester. After attending his history class a couple of times, his professor, Elizabeth Snyder, asked him not to speak in class. Garber has, according to the New York Times, a"profound stutter that makes talking difficult, and talking quickly impossible." He is described as a confident student, who has a lot to say. Students in the class have said he did take up a lot of time in class, but not intolerably so.
Snyder, the professor, emailed Garber and asked him to pose his questions to her before or after the class. She also asked him to keep a piece of paper on his desk to write answers to any questions she asked during class. She asked him to do this “so we do not infringe on other students’ time.”
Elizabeth Snyder, Garber's professor, is pictured on the right
Synder is an experienced teacher, having taught middle school students for 30 years and community college students for 10. This year, an organization on campus awarded her with a "Teacher of the Year" award for her work with academically and financially challenged students. She responded to the suggestions she discriminated against Garber, saying she these were suggestions she made to help him feel comfortable in the class.
According to Snyder, Garber wanted to answer every question and speak frequently throughout the class. She struggled with how to balance her time in class and allow Garber to speak. At one point, she even consulted a speech therapist on how she should handle the situation.
Keep in mind, this is a lower level history class. My own history classes were primarily lecture-based and did not include a lot of class discussion. Because of the nature of the class, Snyder says, “I did not call on Philip in this class nor did I call on anyone else, simply because I had a detailed presentation planned for the class and I wanted to be finished in the prescribed time." She said he misinterpreted these actions as directed solely towards him. Since the original article was published, she has received threatening and hateful emails.
I have struggled with this story and can understand both sides. I believe it is important to accommodate students and provide access to education for all. As a future faculty member, I can also understand the dilemma Snyder faced with Garber. As a professor, you have a limited amount of time each week to teach and face challenges with engaging students in the material.
How do you manage when you have a student needing a sizable amount of classroom time? What do you think? How would you handle this situation?
(If you're interested, Garber has a YouTube channel where he discusses his stutter. Does this change your decision?)
This is a very interesting topic and one that can go in many different directions. In classrooms today, whether they are elementary, middle, high, or college, here are a wide variety of learning and learning styles with many different learning disabilities. I see a few issues with the overall picture here:
ReplyDeletea. time length of class with material given
b. younger student taking college credit
c. learning disability of the student and teacher taking action with it...in front of everyone or not.
First of all. Classes today are required to cover a certain amount of material in a short amount of time, so that puts a time crunch on teaching styles and practices. When teachers try and engage class participation, here are always time delays with responses, so you hope they don't take too long, so you can "move on." So when you have students who are taking longer to process the information, then it takes away from the attention of the rest of the class and the time away from material that is given.
Second, I somewhat have a problem with high school students taking college credit while in high school. I don't think all high school students have the maturity to take college credit classes, especially when college classes are designed differently than high school classes. They aren't designed for questions during class, or taking time away for discussions on topics or having the professor elaborate on ideas. In secondary education, teachers put that in as part of the plans. So in college classes, I don't find it offensive for a teacher to tell a student to stop asking questions...to an a point.
This leads to the last idea. If the teacher made a mockery of this student in front of everyone, then I have a problem with it, but if she pulled him aside and did everything that was said, what's wrong with that? It still encourages the student to ask questions and state his point, but more so on a one-on-one basis. If the world has become to afraid to tell a student that they are taking away from the learning environment of other students, then that is an unfortunate situation. I don't have a problem if the teacher acted correctly in this manner.
Originally when I saw this story in the New York Times, I thought it was obvious the instructor was having difficulty maintaining order in the classroom and used the easiest method of avoiding conflict with the student by avoiding his participation entirely. Upon further consideration, and after reading the Phillip Garber the first and junior’s statements, I’m more inclined to believe that this may be Phil Jr.’s 15 minutes of fame. So I agree with dkwithey in that, in this situation, the student may not have been mature enough to realize how his actions were impacting the learning environment for the entire class. Was he sincerely upset and then disengaged because of the instructor’s actions? Probably. Is he emotionally and cognitively developed enough to understand this isn’t a personal attack but perhaps a rational response to his pushing the issue in class? Maybe not. Of course, he should be continually appropriately challenged not only in this class but in other areas of advancing himself and his speech patterns. This is a direct developmental challenge and learning/teaching moment that may have been completely missed.
ReplyDeleteI had almost simultaneous and differing reactions to the article...first, a feeling of irritation that a faculty member would treat a student that way, and a sense of empathy about how difficult it is to manage a classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhile the faculty's motivations seem well-intentioned(to make the student feel more comfortable), it is an example of how those good intentions can go astray. She seemed to make the assumptions that the other students were bothered by the student's stuttering and that the student himself was uncomfortable in class.
Anyone who has done any form of teaching has undoubtedly encountered a situation where someone in attendance is monopolizing the time, and we all employ various strategies to address it, depending on the audience and situation. For something like an ongoing college course, I would certainly start with a direct and individual conversation with the student to address the issue.
This is definitely a difficult situation, and also one where I see a possible misunderstanding may have gone awry in a hurry.
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination, whether direct or indirect is no longer a socially acceptable act (at least in much of the U.S., not all). Sadly, in our country, now that something has been coined as "bad," it becomes news-worthy. When issues like this arise, it gains national knowledge and spreads like wildfire. Let's face it, if this student did not have a disability, and this happened to a student who just "talked too much," we wouldn't have heard this story. Am I wrong?
It's possible that Ms. Snyder may have been retracting statements and explaining her way out of a tight scenario, but if what she says is true, I feel she may be getting an enormous amount of undeserved hatred.
I believe what could have softened the issue immensely would have been an announcement to the entire class, rather than a personal email to one student. This singling out process is in itself discriminant, and if such procedures are necessary, face-to-face discussion where confusion can be explained away is necessary.
We've come along way in a short amount of time for improvements in social justice. Yet, we see situations like this arise often. Are people still directly discriminatory, or are they just less mindful then they should be?
At first glance I was enraged by the though of this professor asking a student with a stutter not to talk during class. However, after reading further I can understand the dilemma this presents in terms of a limited amount of class time to get through her detailed lesson plan and allowing for other students' learning as well as Mr. Garber's.
ReplyDeleteTo me, email is not an appropriate way to convey such a message to this student. I believe the teacher's intentions were good however I believe she could have handled it better. How about scheduling a in-person meeting with the student and having a conversation about the struggles for each of them. Could they come to an agreement on how to meet the needs of the student as well as the teacher?
I too, was frustrated by this professor singling out a student who did not fit the mold, but after reading your post, it seems to be a more complex issue. While faculty should probably encourage student participation and collaborative learning, in lower level classes that needs to be balanced with the presentation of material to the class. Perhaps professors work with their classes to come to a mutal agreement about lecture vs discussion in the classroom, like leaving time at the end of class for discussion or small group discussion.
ReplyDeleteI believe the student is over reacting. There are many means in which to communicate with a professor outside of class in order to have questions addressed.
ReplyDeleteActually, for this student, I see this as an opportunity to have increased one on one time with the professor thereby further developing his grasp on concepts and address the objectives of the course.
As was stated, this history course is a lower level lecture course designed to provide information rather than elicit discussion.
I tend to agree with dkwithey on this one. The situation, and the resulting recriminations against the professor, seem to be a gross overreaction to the situation. The teacher attempted to communicate with the student in different manners with no results.
ReplyDeleteIt may also be the case that this student is still too emotionally immature to be taking college courses.
In any case, I think that sometimes we as Americans are too quick to cry foul when we feel that we have been wronged. Oftentimes, by simply having a conversation with the other person, we discover that it was a case of simple misunderstanding.