Monday, November 29, 2010

Empowering Education - Connections

In this article, Ira Shor argues that students should be active in their classrooms at all times by participating and being given the chance to think critically. Most classrooms now a days are filled with repetition, memorization, and questions with only one specific correct answer. Students are taught to fill in the blank and circle the right letter in order to be successful and pass their class. Shore states that teachers need to start teaching their students how to think for themselves and let them get involved in class discussions because, believe it or not, students can learn from each other.
As I was reading this article, of course the first things that popped into my head were the readings from Finn and Oakes that we came across a couple of weeks ago. Finn and Oakes wrote about how kids in higher ability classrooms get a better education and experience in schools because they are encouraged to think critically and they are not ridiculed by the fill in the blank quizzes and worksheets. Children who are taught to think for themselves and different possibilities have a better chance of having a successful future both academically and financially.
"Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education, and their futures... empowering education invites students to become skilled workers and thinking citizens."
Giroux says that schools need to be a "public service that educates students to be critical citizens who can think, challenge, take risks, and believe that their actions will make a difference in the larger society."
Students who have been challenged in school to become critical and creative thinkers do no only benefit themselves, but also their society and the world. One who had been trained to come up with multiple answers and possibilities can really make a difference.
I also thought that this article related well to what Delpit taught us in the beginning of the semester. Not so much about being explicit when it comes to having authority, but more towards teaching the codes of power. She taught us that the most important thing one can teach a child is how to survive and be successful in this world and in whatever type of society we live in. Shore believes the same thing. He quotes from Bettelheim that "the most important thing children learn is not the three R's. It's socialization."
Sure, algebra chemistry will come in handy one day, but not as much as the knowledge students get about how to be a successful, respected, and critical citizen.
I really like this article that I found because it includes a clear list of what a teacher's curriculum should include in order to give their students the empowering education they deserve. It shows why teachers should teach "responsible decision-making," "relationship skills," "social awareness," and "self-awareness."
In class, I kind of want to argue about how part of this article somewhat contradicts Delpit. I related it to her but I also think the two disagree. I'm not sure if I'm just reading it the wrong way.

1 comment:

  1. I liked the thought of how children who are taught to think for themselves will have a better future. I was never taught this until late in high school. I put that in my blog also.

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