attention seekers

As I sit down during my student teaching, I start comparing my sophomore and junior field experience to student teaching. I start comparing how students try to gain the teacher's attention. To give a little background about the school i went to do the first two experiences at a public high school in long island. The city where the high school is located, can be described as predominately white, where people live well. At this school students had access to almost everything. The students, when at school, came to study but, at the same time came to share social experiences with their peers and even their teacher. With no shame, teachers were knowing all their students personal life. In my opinion, this is a mechanism in order for the teacher to grow fond of the student. The student wants to captivate the teacher in order for the students' own benefit.

Now, being at student teaching, the background of the high school is predominately hispanic population, where kids come from a hard working society, or even from a broken family. These students seek the attention of teachers in a different way. The students see the teachers as authority figures and even maybe as role models. So, the attention seeked is more of the teacher being a positive force in a students life. When a teacher is angry at the student, the student goes and faces a harsh reality of another person giving up on them. This is where disciplnary problems occur. If a students feels this abandonment, the student does not have anyone else to impress or satisfy. The students act inresponsibly and do not care for the teacher figure anymore.

With this comparison, I am still left with two puzzling questions, is there ever going to be a way to figure out how to control both sides of these attention seekers? Is the teacher fighting a battle in vain, in order to help, guide and provide the students an environment where the can succeed in life?