The seminar
began with the topic of banned books and how they can be used to educate. Oddly enough, my school still uses a couple
of those books (Fahrenheit 451 and Of Mice and Men). They are great books with many lessons to be
learned from them, and I enjoy teaching with them, but they are dated. There are plenty of books that have been
published since then, banned or not, that would better engage the
students. I am sure there are many
underlying reasons in which the books haven’t been changed, funding, etc, but
there is something to be said about moving forward in learning tools, when
several generations have passed along using the same materials. This is probably not the point Jerry was
making, but it was food for my thoughts, nonetheless. :)
On the topic of
dated material, I found the readings to be very behind the times. During our group’s inkshedding, we agreed
that it is very disheartening that these issues were still being discussed in
this day and age. The articles are from
the 70's and 80's, and we are still dealing with the same issues!? Are we any closer to having solutions to
these problems? Contrarily, I do not
think that the situations we find ourselves are as dire as the articles would
lead one to believe. We agreed that varying
levels of socio-economic statuses exist, but there are many assumptions being
made about those from a lower socio-economic status. Assumptions can be viewed as excuses. These excuses give reasons as to why things
are the way they are and are used as a back door out to solving problems. The Garland, Therrien and Hammonds article
states that “Children of uneducated parents are less likely to develop the
early language skills and excitement for learning that will prepare them for
school.” This is probably based on a
study of a specific community, but it sounds like a single story and shouldn't be used to generally describe those of a lower income or anyone
uneducated. I know of plenty of people
who come from families where the parents do not have any higher education, but
their children have grown to value education and do better for themselves. I don’t think it is fair to classify certain
students and give excuses for their ‘projected’ outcome. I think an answer can be found in raising
their standards within our classrooms instead of offering excuses. I agree that there has to be some
understanding for why homework might not be complete, etc, but there are ways
around that within the classroom. Sometimes
I think that maybe education is not the institution at fault as to why the
cycle of poverty exists. It seems to be
blamed, but there are other institutions that can also take some ownership of
issues as well, such as the economy or politics. Why does it seem like education becomes the
scapegoat to society’s problems? Not to
contradict myself, and use that as an excuse, but everyone should be taking
ownership to better our society. This
includes parents as well. The readings
did not give the parents or the students a voice.
I get frustrated
when the (hopefully historical) issues of society at large are brought up in
education. I recognize that this is
reality in many of our classrooms, but don’t we perpetuate these issues by
discussing them? Sometimes I find that
discussing issues like racism (as real as they are, and hopefully have been)
are carried on as opposed to moving from them. I understand that discussions on some of these
topics are necessary to make people aware of them, but I’d like to think that
at this day and age, we are beyond awareness.
I find that these discussions to
be just that – discussions. There is limitless
of talk about problems, and even more on theories as to why, but what about
less talk and more action to improve concerns in order to break this
cycle. I'm not sure if that is an
answer, but it would be nice to one day hear optimistic discussions of success,
and propagate that instead. I agree that
there is a huge social component to literacy, but these discussions need to be reflective
of current standings, especially with social media and research.
If I had to pinpoint
my frustration, I guess it would be that when I walk into my classroom, I do not
see race or class (two words that really bother me). I see individual faces – each one with
different stories to tell. I understand that
some may come from hardships due to their background. I don’t think that these hardships should be censored
in anyway, but maybe be used as a stepping stone. I think next steps are important for everyone involved,
teacher and student, and the student within the teacher. I do not think that the past needs to be dwelled
upon, but used as a lesson to move forward. Nor is the past an excuse for the future.
These courses have
me doing a lot of thinking as analyzing about what I do in my classroom and how
I teach my students. I have to admit that
I feel like my horizons have really been broadened and I'm enjoying teaching more
than I ever have! I am applying a lot of
what I have learned throughout the year in my classes. Jerry would be happy to know that I had my class
draw an image from any short story we read in class and we had to guess which story
they referred to. As much as my students
grumbled about not being able to draw (as I'm sure we did about being artsy in the
summer), they had a blast looking at each other’s talents and guessing. I will be using a Sandra Cisneros excerpt for my
first attempt at text rendering this week...stay tuned! My grade 11's loved the little origami book they
made for their private thoughts while we discussed relationship abuse. Looking forward to more learning and thinking...
