My usual routine on Wednesday mornings is to spend three hours helping out at my daughter's preschool and then taking her to the library where we read exactly one more book than the week prior. She was to be on 12 books today so I wasn't so excited about how long this might take knowing how I felt about where I stood with my school work (see previous post). I offered her an option to read with me this afternoon, and low and behold she wanted to help me review chapter one of To Teach (the book by William Ayers..you know the terrorist?) It was great for comprehension because she would ask so many off the wall questions such as "Why was (Maxine Greene) named after a color?" Bottom line, I was inspired that my 3 year old was helping me do my homework. Oddly enough I think she got more out of it then me.
What I did notice during the second reading of the chapter is that he seemed to set the stage for a battle of teachers who fight the bureaucracy vs. teachers who follow the path laid out for them. On one side you have a teacher who pushes for original thoughts and ideas from their students and on the other a teacher who pushes for their kids to know their place in the world. Ayer's stage has an obvious protagonist and antagonist (good guy vs bad guy). Before I go too deep into this I should let the reader know that my personality is one that avoids conflict, so much of my philosophy is based on going with the norm to keep everyone happy. Luckily for me this is part of my core reason for becoming a teacher...I want to break this tendency and gain experience going against the norm and follow what makes sense and feels comfortable (bureaucracy does not feel comfortable). Ayer's makes it clear that teaching kids how to question ideas is the key to the power of knowledge, but to what extent does that impede the learning of basic subjects such as math and reading? I have guesses, but this line of questioning will drive me through the next couple days of schooling as I hopefully will begin to see some answers...and then build on this to create a new philosophy that will be my teaching model.
Man, I think I'm getting a handle on this school thing once again. As George Castanza would say, "I'm Busting Jerry, I'm Busting!!"
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George Castanza, model educator!
ReplyDeleteSo, is what you're really saying here is that avoiding conflict may mean keeping the bureaucracy happy, while possibly doing things that will cause considerable unhappiness among children?
That's the choice we really do sometimes face -- not to "go along" but to take the side of children vs. "the system".
Can't wait to hear what your daughter things of Buchmann!