Going Home

NEA Today, Feb 2006

Visiting students at home can help you at school.

YOUR STUDENTS spend hours every day at school with you, on your turf, but how much time do you spend in their neighborhood on theirs?

If the answer is very little, that's a mistake, says Carmen Mercado, an education professor at Hunter College and the City University of New York. For more than 20 years, Mercado has encouraged teachers to visit their students' homes to identify intellectual resources that can be applied to school curriculum.

Too often, teachers assume their students-especially poor and minority ones-don't have resources at home for learning. They do, Mercado says. And knowing what they are can promote "culturally responsive teaching," as well as infuse your students with a sense of confidence and dignity.

"For example, many students lead trans-national lives, going to and from Puerto Rico in some cases. This is a tremendous resource," says Mercado. "A teacher can go into a Puerto Rican home and observe the student's language skills, knowledge of religion or art or history, and then connect that back to the curriculum."