.7 Stereotyping

The problems of remoteness and stereotyping must be talked about and dealt with. First of all, are stereotypes good or bad? Allow me to illustrate -- have you been to McDonalds? When I go to McDonalds, I have a certain stereotype I follow. Some people may go into McDonalds and sit down and wait to be served. If you sat down and waited to be served in McDonalds, do you think that would be very effective? Of course not. On the other hand, do they have a sign anywhere that says "We don't serve you?" No. So how do you know that? It's a stereotype, and I allege it is a good stereotype because it teaches me how to behave in McDonalds' I have never been in before.

Problems only arise if I insist on the stereotype after I have information to the contrary. Not all McDonalds take orders at the counter; some McDonalds in Europe serve you. I have never been in one that serves you, but I presume there may be one. I have been in a lot of McDonalds in Europe that don't serve you. That's the point of stereotypes - they can never be relied upon. Stereotypes are very useful and valuable as opening positions, but they become very destructive if you don't allow people to escape the stereotype. You have to be prepared to remove yourself from the stereotype. However, many stereotypes, even negative stereotypes, are correct. Manynegative stereotypes are appropriate starting points, but are not appropriate ending points. It is immoral to force people into a category that doesn't fit, but it is reasonable to use a category as a starting point.

I can tell you a really embarrassing story about a student of mine named Kurt. This is a very good example of nottaking people for who they are. This student came into my class a couple of weeks late and was one of those kids who always kind of hangs around. He came to the office before class started, and he was there at lunch time too, just hanging around. I got to know him a little bit. He was a nice kid, a ninth grader, and at the end of the six week term he got an F on his term test. I thought "well, he came late, he's trying, he's a nice kid and I want to encourage him." So I decided to give him a C- rather than an F. Over the next six weeks, Kurt didn't come in, I never saw him, and he still didn't do anything. This time I gave him the F.

The third six weeks he still wasn't doing anything, and I had to provide a progress report. In this particular school district, not only do you have to notify the parents when their kid is under a death sentence in this class, but the kid has to sign the progress report before it goes home. So I made out the report on Kurt and called him up to sign it. He asked to see me after class.

After class he told me that at the end of the first six weeks his mother and father split up. The judge awarded his mother custody during the week and he was with his father on the weekends. So all week he had to sit there and listen to what an awful person his father was, and all weekend he had to sit there and listen to what an awful person his mother was. He would just be absolutely torn apart, and not surprisingly he couldn't focus on any studies.

Before I knew all this, I thought I had it figured out. Here was a kid who had figured me for a softy, and because he figured me for a softy, he was trying to get away with it. I wasn't going to play that game. If I had considered Kurt's case more closely, I would have asked myself why his behavior changed so dramatically after six weeks. It would have been a useful and obvious thing to ask. But I had this predisposed notion, this stereotype, that this kid had sized me up and stopped working because he was going to take advantage of me. I got on this track without any thought of looking to the right or the left, or any need for any more information. I was just totally out to lunch.

So there is an excellent example of where a stereotype does you in. Now, I could have used another stereotype thatwould have helped. "When people dramatically change their behavior, something has changed in their life," is a common sense stereotype that I could have followed and which would have alerted me to Kurt's situation. Both Kurt and I would have had very different results. I am still embarrassed about that when I think about the pain I caused that kid.

	When are stereotypes useful and when are they destructive?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Burton teaches seventh grade life science in a middle school in a suburban community in Virginia. One of her students, Candace, has stopped coming to her class and rarely attends school at all. Mrs. Burton knows that Candace is a good student from past performance, but recently because of her absences she has begun to fail anything she does complete. After talking to Candace about her absences near the end of the term, Mrs. Burton discovers that there are many problems that Candace is facing at home that are carrying over to the classroom. How should Mrs. Burton handlethis situation?	Answer Here