Martin Haberman pulls no punches in his scathing critique of the insensitive and unjust treatment received by children in poverty in the public school system. He focuses the brunt of his criticism on teachers who have been insufficiently trained for the realities of the modern school environment and whose prejudices, lack of deep content knowledge, and excessive focus 5 on order and discipline profoundly limit their effectiveness. Haberman writes, "the principles and theories we call child and adolescent development were all developed to explain the middle-class experience," and that everyone else in public schools, including non-white, immigrant, or non-English-speaking children, are considered somehow anomalies, thus leading to the absurd situation in which a teacher completes teacher training and is put in front of a class of students 10 she considers to be made entirely of "exceptions."
Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.
According to Haberman, a teacher's effectiveness can be compromised by
A. insufficient attention to order and discipline
B. insufficient knowledge of the material being taught
C. personal bias
In the last line of the passage, the word "
exceptions" is in quotes to make the point that
(A) the idea of "exceptions" is crucial to effective education
(B) the quote is taken verbatim from a teacher
(C) students who perform well academically are an aberration, not the reverse
(D) certain teachers inappropriately consider "non-white, immigrant, or non-English-speaking children" to be other than the norm
(E) teachers versed in the principles and theories of child and adolescent development are actually the norm