12 Chapter 12: Bringing It All Together
This chapter will provide a broad overview of your legal responsibilities as a future teacher. In addition, a critical look at “standards” will be taken. Among the questions explored about standards will be: (a) who determines what standards will be used, (b) how do you ensure that the standards are met, and (c) do you have any flexibility as a future teacher when it comes to “teaching to the standards.” Finally, this chapter will take a closer look at the curriculum. Once again, key questions about the curriculum will be posed, including: (a) who determines what curriculum will be implemented, (b) how closely do you have to follow the curriculum, and (c) are there ways you can supplement the curriculum if you feel it will better meet the needs of your students? Although you will get a good introduction to each of the topics identified above, please remember that whole textbooks have been written about each one. So the introduction you are receiving here is meant to be just this, and introduction. For more detailed information, I would encourage you to do additional research on your own.
Responding to Diversity
12.1 Essential Questions
By the end of this section, the following Essential Questions will be answered:
- What are the two key legal responsibilities discussed in this section?
- What student population is most likely to experience some form of child abuse?
- As a teacher, when do you have to report child abuse?
- What are the guidelines associated with the use of copyrighted materials?
As a future teacher, you will have certain legal responsibilities. One of the most important being reporting child abuse and neglect. A secondary responsibility, is ensuring the proper use of copyrighted materials. In order to better understand what your responsibilities are, related to both of these legal issues, we will explore them in more depth in this section. Given the serious nature of the first legal issue, we will discuss the reporting of child abuse
and neglect first.
Child Abuse and Neglect
According to Webb et. al. (2010), “the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), as amended by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003, defines child abuse and neglect as:
“Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation. It includes an act or failure to act which represents an imminent risk of serious harm. (42 U.S.C. 5106)” (p. 303)
As a future teacher, it is important to note that child abuse and neglect occur across all socioeconomic classes and ethnic/racial groups.
12.2 An Example in Practice
In order to understand what this might look like in the classroom, consider the following examples.
Example #1:
Mrs. Sparks notices that Mitchell keeps
falling asleep in her second grade class. Since this has been happening for over two
weeks, Mrs. Sparks decides to keep Mitchell in
at rece