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Very interesting, and brings back many of the questions we asked from weeks ago. In this context, who put the fence up in the first place? What was it there for? Restriction or safety? What are the implications of taking the fence down completely? 

This world is not neutral and it is impossible to completely remove all of the fences or I can say it is impossible to remove all kinds of bias, prejudice as well as unfair conditions that people are facing. Some fences are visible but most of them are not. Looking at this photo, I just want to remind myself that although I cannot see the fences, it does not mean that they do not stand there. Taking the fences down is a moral responsibility of the whole society and I agree with Nancy that it is an ongoing process. Thank you for sharing this interesting photo.

Agree with Dr. LeGette  that good character is both taught and caught. Students needs to be taught necessary skills to put values in action and the values need to be the norms guiding adults’ everyday behavior so that students can imitate and internalize.

Thank you for sharing this article. In the culture that teachers are recognized as another parent/ an extension of the home, teachers are expected to build a close and caring relationship with their students, which, according to Oakes et al. (2013), is an element that contributes to a positive school culture. In addition, the fact that these schools lack basic needs like roofs, floors or running water does not necessarily mean they cannot have access to other forms of capital including familial, aspirational, resistant, navigational and social capitals (Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model, Rachel et al (2005)), leading to their students’ success. 

It’s interesting to look at the application of business skills in communicating and symbolizing schools’ ideals. The success of schools mentioned in this article proves the effectiveness of this approach. I believe that the success does not merely come from the fact that the schools successfully build the school culture thanks to the marketing effects but they also spend appropriate efforts in nurturing it hand having it evolve. We cannot build culture and expect it to stay forever, right?

Thanks for posting this article. I think a lot about parent involvement and the ways that we can "bring" them into the classroom. However, I haven’t considered the idea that the ways we seemingly attempt to bring parents in traditionally, are not accessible or desirable for all parents as well as parent-teacher dynamics.

The clip suggests a shared responsibility when it comes to taking initiative in building connections between school and home for the success of the children in the school. It also offers some strategies for parents to establish good communication. However, those strategies work with the assumption that the school community is a safe, welcoming and open space for parents involvement. I imagine Oakes et al. would have to bring up another point that schools and teachers often create barriers to parent involvement intentionally or unintentionally. For example, the security check in the entrance of the school might send an unwelcoming message to some parents (p. 326). Indeed, it involves the entire community to support our students in their education.

In the context of US, we have what we call IEP, although it is related to special needs children, whereas in the video, it is for everyone because of the philosophy: every child is special. The emphasis on early identification and intervention even makes the individual learning plan serves its purposes. Picking out identified students to a separate classroom to offer extra help does not effect negatively on the particular student( e.g. felt being singled-out, different) for it is what everyone will have. However, I am intrigued to find out the implementation on the ground, the complexity of the arrangement of appointment and meeting with different special teachers, considering the diversity of the students. There must be something else in Finland education system that allows for this to happen.  

Agree with Lina. I also like the idea that the policy encourages kids to actively seek for help and know where to get help when they need, instead of hiding them. Students are trained to advocate themselves, which is a critical thing to help them succeed.