Teacher explains what fairness really means.

[Courtesy Flush]

I found this comment on Reddit, posted by a teacher.

I am a first year Teach For America teacher in the Midwest. I teach 5th grade language arts at a mastery based, college prep middle school in its inaugural year. Life is very interesting.
Our student population (40 5th graders and 45 6th graders) is quite diverse. They have come from over 30 different schools in our area, all for very different reasons - bullying, far behind in achievement, far ahead in achievement, behavior issues, etc. Our population is 88% free and reduced lunch, and 70/30 ratioed black/white.
In my classes, I have functionally illiterate children, children reading at a high school level, and children everywhere in between. This means that I have a LOT of differentiating to do - and this has created a divide amongst many of my students. "Ms. B!!" they scream at me when I'm explaining homework, "Why did Timmy get half a page of homework, and I got 2 FULL pages? That's just not fair!!!!"
I hit a breaking point at the beginning of last week, and finally scrapped my vocab words for Tuesday in order to teach the meaning of the word fair.
"Who can tell me what fair means?" "It means treating everyone the same." "WRONG! You've just given me the definition of the word 'equal.' What does 'fair' mean?" "We.... Don't know?" "So then why do you say it to me ALL OF THE TIME?"
We then had a LONG discussion about fair meaning "everyone gets what they need." I explained that if the cafeteria was serving Peanut butter treating someone with a peanut allergy EQUALLY would mean that they would either eat the peanut butter and get sick or not eat that day, and that treating them FAIRLY would mean providing them with a cheese sandwich so that they could eat lunch too. I then took a class poll, letting everyone see each others strengths and weaknesses. "what if I made everyone write 5 paragraphs every night for homework? How many of you would be very frustrated with that because it would be kind of tough for you?" when about half the class raised their hand, it finally dawned on the other half - "oh, we all have strengths and weaknesses." One of the higher leveled readers said "Oh yeah, Ms. B. that would be like if I had to do all the math homework. It takes me forever because it's really hard!"
My classroom has TURNED AROUND. My students want to help each other now. Lower leveled students want to work harder to prove they can do all of the homework, and higher leveled students are reinforcing their skills by helping the lower kids out. My life is THAT MUCH EASIER!
http://www.reddit.com/r/teaching/comments/myxtw/i_taught_my_students_the_real_definition_of_fair/">Tl;dr I taught my students the correct definition of "fair" and my classroom culture has never been better!

[Swede]

1. Now that is a teacher.

[geckosfeet]

2. Excellent lesson for the day - for your students and us adults as well.

I think that the population in general DOES interpret fair as equal. This is a great way to introduce the idea of the rich needing to bear their fair share of taxes to boneheaded conservo-bots who scream class warfare when anyone suggests the rich should be taxed more.

And equal is indeed the meaning the fair that the repubs have when they talk about taxes for mega wealthy people and businesses. Fair they say, is taxing the mega wealthy at the same rate as everyone else. How is that fair? It is equal - not fair. The poor will spend everything and perhaps go deeply into debt and still have unmet needs - needs that the mega wealthy do not even have to consider thanks to their stockpiles of cash.

[dballance]

3. God bless you!

Your job is impossibly difficult and you probably are not getting the appreciation you deserve. I hate the lie that teachers are overpaid and a problem for our deficits.

[baldguy]

4. Ms. B should moderate the next GOP debate.

edit: and teach me how to spell

[SoCalDem]

5. The only glitch is that "fair" is different for different people

Life itself, is not fair to begin with.

Getting the "unfair ones" to acknowledge that they even need to change their definition of fair, is the first hurdle.

"Equal" is self-evident..

50% measured out here, and 50% measured out there............

simple people can understand that..and can also arrive at the conclusion that it's also "fair".

"Fair" often requires nuance & empathy, both severely in short supply these days

[warrior1]

6. he/she needs to teach this to

republicans