CONNECTIONS
For my
final blog post I felt like a connections post would be appropriate just to tie
everything together from all that we have learned over the semester. This
article "Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change"
by Ira Shor had similar thoughts to authors like Johnson and Kohn. The part
that interested me the most was the many different aspects of participation in
the classroom for students and teachers, and the relationships that form
between students with other students and students with teachers. I can say for
a fact that when we first started our service learning projects we were all
worried about if the students were going to like us or not, and as time went on
it got easier and now we don't want to leave.
Right from the beginning Shor references Bettelheim's perspective on whether kids should question why they have to go to school. He thought that socialization was the most import thing a teacher could teach a student, he also urged to teachers to encourage students to question their school experience. "A school year that begins by questioning school could be a remarkably democratic and critical learning experience for students" (Shor 1). This would build the trust between a teacher and their students. Johnson would say that this is great because they are talking about the issues of privilege, power and difference and as a result they create a more just and respectful world.
Some
other writers that Shor references are Sapon-Shevin and Schniedewind who talk
about the cognitive impact of competition that can go on in a classroom that
the teacher has to facilitate in order for it to occur. For example star charts
showing that certain students have mastered multiplying by 2's, or only having
the work of the students who have neat handwriting and perfect papers hung up
around the classroom. Kohn would say those are some "reasons to
worry" because they only highlight the good kids in the class not the
class as a whole, and in doing so it discourages those kids who don't have a
star next to their name or their paper hung up. Kohn also believes that the
climate, curriculum, and pedagogy issues contribute to engagement and learning
within the classroom, much like Shor.
Just as
a side note this quote reminded me of something we had talked about in class,
"The authoritarian traditional curriculum itself generates bad feelings
which leads many students to resist or sabotage the lessons" (24). This
reminded me of when Dr. Bogad said that it is easier for a kid to see
themselves as a behavioral problem than the "stupid" one in the
class. I see this a lot in the classroom that I do my service learning in
because if they aren't seeing their papers hung on the walls and the teacher
always has to report them to the principal, they aren't going to have any
confidence in their ability to do the school work, so they act out. 
Shor
was very informative in a way when he talks about participation being a very
important part of a students experience in school. If a student doesn't share
their opinions they will go unsaid and that will only hurt them in the long
run. This article as a whole was very informative on what a productive
classroom can be, it wrapped all of our articles that we have read over the
semester into one. I have learned so much through these articles and it has
been really fun creating this blog.
"Education is more than facts and skills. It is a socializing experience that helps the people who make society" (Shor 15).
