Education Is Politics

1."In a curriculum that encourages student questioning, the teacher avoids a unilateral transfer of knowledge. She or he helps students develop their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions in society."

I think this is important because, often kids feel put off by school. They don't feel as if they are participants in their own education. Shor is saying that by allowing students to have a voice in the classroom, the teacher is assigning value to each student as an important contribution to the class. When kids feel valued they are more inclined to participate and less so to withdraw and become disconnected. I think Shor's idea of integrating the classroom with a student's outside life only serves to engage the student more.

2."Rote learning and skills drills in traditional classrooms do more than bore and miseducate students; they also inhibit their civic and emotional developments. Students learn to be passive or cynical in classes that transfer facts, skills, or values without meaningful connections to their needs, interests, or community cultures."

I remember feeling very disconnected in school and I mentally checked out after my second year of high school. I showed up but my mind was elsewhere and as I realized that there were really no immediate consequences, it reinforced the feeling of separation from school for me. I figured out that I could fail my Spanish 3 class and still move on to my senior year, so I slept in the back everyday. I am not proud , but I remember that I had drooled so much that the pages were all wavy and the book was hard to close by the end of the year. The following year I decided to do the same in Psychology and was asked at the end of the year by the teacher not to show up for the final because they could use the extra seat. I didn't attend graduation and my picture was not in the yearbook. I regret these decisions now, but at the time I was angry and I didn't feel any connection to the teachers or the curriculum. Getting back to the quote, I can see how a little boredom and lack of connection can turn into complete withdrawal.

3."...this competitive orientation leads to isolation and alienation " among students, encouraging a handful of " winners" while depressing the performance of the many, especially female students and minorities who withdraw from the aggressive affect of the classroom."

I am hesitant to talk about isolation and alienation again, but it really struck a nerve with me. I can totally relate to the feeling of not wanting to compete in a game where the odds are rigged and the terms are only clear to those who are supposed to win. The academic competition doesn't encourage learning as much as it inhibits it. Nobody wants to play a game that they have no chance of winning. Schools skim the top of the fish bowl for those students who can swim to the top, and the ones that can't drown. Things needs to change and maybe it already has started to. It has been a while since I was in High School and I hope that with the influx of new teachers, the old way of unilateral, competitive education is dying.