Slavery Writers
The week before I started my student teaching I saw the movie Freedom Writers with a couple of my roommates. This was only the latest in the long line of Dangerous Minds-like movies which have spawned in the years after it was created. For those of you who have not seen it (or Lean on Me, or To Sir with Love, or the one where they learn to tango, or…) a high needs school is demonstrated (cue hip-hop music) in all of its terrible might. And just as the situation doesn’t look like it can get worse, here enters the passionate educator ready to change lives and minds. Oh sure, they look like they are going to fail towards the middle, but somehow or another they manage to help them pass the test (or ballroom dance). This depiction of how a revolutionary teacher was defined was all I was exposed to prior to this placement. In my mind, the only students that needed help were those who were the most poor, in the worst districts, with the least amount of support. Although this may mainly be true, I believe I have finally found the way in which I can make an impact on my students which would help change their lives and the lives of those less fortunate.
Today, as I was taking a look at the library in the classroom I noticed a book that was right up in front. It was about a girl who lived in a time where everyone got bar code tattoos and how she did not want to get one. From what I read, the main theme of the book was conformity versus identity. “This is awesome!” I remember thinking to myself. But I wondered: Why hasn’t anyone else shown interest in it? I thought about that all day long as I observed how my students spoke, acted and reacted to teachers and each other. What I came to see was eerily disturbing. Everyone with whom I had spoken to had referred to these kids as “good” kids who “work hard” and “do what they are supposed to do”. What I saw, however, was very different. Where others saw good behavior, I saw docility. Where they interpreted cooperation, I saw mindless conformity.
Two instances have driven me to this conclusion.
The first happened yesterday during the morning announcements. The principal went on the loudspeaker and announced that there is construction going on in the building and so there would be workers coming in and out which students would probably see. They were instructed, and I quote: “Do not speak to or look at these workers. They will not speak to or look at you. We encourage you to be civil to all those in our learning community, but do not communicate with these workers”. I looked around in disbelief, awaiting a rush of questions that never came. Why didn’t the students care to find out why they should not talk, or even look at, these people? More pressingly: whether or not there was a legitimate excuse of why students are workers were not to communicate, does this school have any idea of the message they are sending to the kids? Saying that is equivalent to one of them walking down the street with their mother and seeing her hold her purse tight when a Black person walks by; Or a parent telling their child “Don’t look a them” when they see a disabled person. The message, whether explicit or implicit, is that these people are less than you. They do not deserve the same recognition that teachers, principals, doctors, lawyers or nurses do.
The second instance does not concern something which was said, but just the opposite. When all the teachers were doing their introductory spiel the first day of school, not a single one (I asked) felt the need to mention why the material was important to learn. Sure, they might say, “You will need to use these skills and this information for the state tests”, but if you have been keeping up on my writing you already know how I feel about that. Why, exactly, is this information not given? Because it’s not asked for. Why would one of these students ever question a teacher? Why question anything at all? When everything has been provided for you there is not need to ask questions.
Now don’t get me wrong, just because the grand majority of these students’ families are very well off, that does not mean that they have come from easy childhoods. Some have learning disabilities and have had personal issues. Most come from divorced households. Notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is that virtually none of them have ever gone to bed hungry (I say virtually to cover my own rear, but I highly doubt it). Virtually none of them have ever had to worry about being hurt because of the way that they look or what they believe in.
So they don’t question. Ever.
They don’t question what they watch on television. They don’t question what they wear. They don’t question their culture. And they damned sure never questioned their teacher.
That’s where I step in.
In my culture, questioning everything (especially authority) is not only accepted, it’s frequent. How many times have you heard “F--- the police!” from people in the Black and Latino popular culture? My students would never say “F--- the police”. The police live next door.
On September 11, 2001, “official announcements in the south tower of the World Trade Center repeatedly instructed everyone in the building to stay put, which posed an agonizing choice: Follow the official directive or disobey and evacuate” (Kohn 130). Which one do you think most of my students would do?
Teaching these students to think critically and question everything (including – nay, especially authority) is not just a cute goal to put on a lesson plan to make it align with the state standards: it is a matter of life and death. Just think, if I can help one student to question what they have ever been taught and think for themselves, maybe they can realize their dream to be a teacher, an advocate for the homeless or maybe even…a construction worker.
--
Kohn, Alphie. What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Today, as I was taking a look at the library in the classroom I noticed a book that was right up in front. It was about a girl who lived in a time where everyone got bar code tattoos and how she did not want to get one. From what I read, the main theme of the book was conformity versus identity. “This is awesome!” I remember thinking to myself. But I wondered: Why hasn’t anyone else shown interest in it? I thought about that all day long as I observed how my students spoke, acted and reacted to teachers and each other. What I came to see was eerily disturbing. Everyone with whom I had spoken to had referred to these kids as “good” kids who “work hard” and “do what they are supposed to do”. What I saw, however, was very different. Where others saw good behavior, I saw docility. Where they interpreted cooperation, I saw mindless conformity.
Two instances have driven me to this conclusion.
The first happened yesterday during the morning announcements. The principal went on the loudspeaker and announced that there is construction going on in the building and so there would be workers coming in and out which students would probably see. They were instructed, and I quote: “Do not speak to or look at these workers. They will not speak to or look at you. We encourage you to be civil to all those in our learning community, but do not communicate with these workers”. I looked around in disbelief, awaiting a rush of questions that never came. Why didn’t the students care to find out why they should not talk, or even look at, these people? More pressingly: whether or not there was a legitimate excuse of why students are workers were not to communicate, does this school have any idea of the message they are sending to the kids? Saying that is equivalent to one of them walking down the street with their mother and seeing her hold her purse tight when a Black person walks by; Or a parent telling their child “Don’t look a them” when they see a disabled person. The message, whether explicit or implicit, is that these people are less than you. They do not deserve the same recognition that teachers, principals, doctors, lawyers or nurses do.
The second instance does not concern something which was said, but just the opposite. When all the teachers were doing their introductory spiel the first day of school, not a single one (I asked) felt the need to mention why the material was important to learn. Sure, they might say, “You will need to use these skills and this information for the state tests”, but if you have been keeping up on my writing you already know how I feel about that. Why, exactly, is this information not given? Because it’s not asked for. Why would one of these students ever question a teacher? Why question anything at all? When everything has been provided for you there is not need to ask questions.
Now don’t get me wrong, just because the grand majority of these students’ families are very well off, that does not mean that they have come from easy childhoods. Some have learning disabilities and have had personal issues. Most come from divorced households. Notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is that virtually none of them have ever gone to bed hungry (I say virtually to cover my own rear, but I highly doubt it). Virtually none of them have ever had to worry about being hurt because of the way that they look or what they believe in.
So they don’t question. Ever.
They don’t question what they watch on television. They don’t question what they wear. They don’t question their culture. And they damned sure never questioned their teacher.
That’s where I step in.
In my culture, questioning everything (especially authority) is not only accepted, it’s frequent. How many times have you heard “F--- the police!” from people in the Black and Latino popular culture? My students would never say “F--- the police”. The police live next door.
On September 11, 2001, “official announcements in the south tower of the World Trade Center repeatedly instructed everyone in the building to stay put, which posed an agonizing choice: Follow the official directive or disobey and evacuate” (Kohn 130). Which one do you think most of my students would do?
Teaching these students to think critically and question everything (including – nay, especially authority) is not just a cute goal to put on a lesson plan to make it align with the state standards: it is a matter of life and death. Just think, if I can help one student to question what they have ever been taught and think for themselves, maybe they can realize their dream to be a teacher, an advocate for the homeless or maybe even…a construction worker.
--
Kohn, Alphie. What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Labels: critical thinking, epiphany
posted by A Neophyte English Teacher at
3:19 PM
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