"Empowering Education"
Ira Shor
Quotes:
1. "The deficiency is the curriculum in schools, which he saw as a one-way transmission of rules and knowledge from teacher to students, stifling their curiosity. People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not, as is commonly supposed, politically neutral. It cuts off the students; development as critical thinkers about their world. If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted." I couldn't agree more with this quote. All of this of when I read this is when I was in high school and we were always forced to read books that we were never interested in. The teachers are given a curriculum to follow and it doesn't matter if we want to learn about it or not. One of my teachers at the beginning of the year asked us some books that we would want to read that were popular. That was the smartest thing she could have ever done because we always tried to do all the work without even laying a finger on the books. If you take things that students will be interested in, they will enjoy learning it and want to learn more.
2. "Human beings do not invent themselves in a vacuum, and society cannot be made unless people create it together. The goals of his pedagogy are to relate personal growth to public life, by developing strong skills, academic knowledge, habits of inquiry, and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality and change." The goals of his pedagogy make complete sense. People develop, grow, and learn from the influences around them. If a baby was left alone, it would grow up not knowing how to talk, interact, walk, etc. because there wouldn't be anyone around for him to learn from. Society makes us who we are today and it basically has molded us and will continue to mold us until we are no longer around.
3. "Participation provides students with active experiences in class, through which they develop knowledge that is reflective understanding, not mere memorization. Further, participation sends a hopeful message to students about their present and future; it encourages their achievement by encouraging their aspirations. They are treated as responsible, capable human beings who should expect to do a lot and do it well, an affective feature of the empowering classroom..." There is nothing more important then an interactive classroom. That is why participation should be encouraged and used all of the time in classrooms. Children will learn or be more willing to learn if they are having fun participating and communicating. If they are not allowed to speak their mind and chime in once and awhile, they will have no ambition or drive to pay attention.
This Empowering Education article has basically tied in everything we have learned throughout the course of the semester. There are bits and pieces in this article that I could probably relate to the other nine articles we read in class. Shor focuses on "critical teaching for social change." I agreed with pretty much everything stated in his article about teachers having the capability to make these students into something great. The different teaching methods are important and it is important to be creative and have a high-energy classroom. Children will learn from their society and by participating and questioning. However, in a lot of classrooms, children are not given this freedom to converse freely about questions they may have or observations. It is hard for children to learn to think freely if they are always told to be quiet and not to participate. I remember being so bored in my classes where we weren't allowed to communicate and we were "talked at." It is hard even in college for me to pay attention to professors if they are simply lecturing us and not interacting with us...I can only imagine how children feel in elementary school when their minds are so young.
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