How we see + study young people - YDEV 501 #4

 

"Do the best you can until you know better. Than once you know better, do better." - Maya Angelou

    I think the overarching theme of these pieces is relatively similar. We cannot continue to educate in a way that was framed with hatred, ignorance, and hierarchal philosophy. We are failing our children by continuing to operate in ways we know are outdated and frankly not working. This is most apparent when looking at marginalized groups of students and thus should be where we begin. The first reading "Sean: On Being Willful" really hit me in a tough way. I'd be willing to bet anyone who has or does work in a school setting knows a "Sean".....or five. I had several students faces pop into my mind when reading about his insistent questioning, inability to find concentration, and failures within peer relationships. This chapter outlined the school and teacher's inability to find a solution that worked for Sean within their conventional ways of educating. It didn't seem like there was shame put on the teachers - they were doing what they were taught and know - however, it is the responsibility of those educators to find a supportive solution for Sean. I've admittedly used similar strategies in group management and classroom settings in the past and for the majority of children they can be effective - but at what cost and who are you excluding? I think that this chapter is a great segway into the second reading which proposed some more solutions on how to approach children like Sean, who perhaps are not "molding" to the conventional teaching structure. 

    In the reading "A Letter to Teachers: On Teaching Love and Learning Freedom" it began to offer an alternative to previously normalized ways of discipline. Building on the idea that you "can't fight fire with fire", this reading suggests that we meet "disobedience" or "rebellion" with love rather than resistance. Thinking about the social, political, and financial construct of the community around the children is a big piece of this philosophy. Understanding that schools are not isolated entities - but part of a larger world for the students. Many of the methods and understandings spoke of in this reading related back to my trainings in Montessori Education. Maria Montessori began her style of education with marginalized children - either those with disabilities or low-income towns. She found a new approach to education which celebrated the differences between students and honored the child as a whole being in a way that was very radical for the time. Using natural materials and child-led curriculum she was able to educate children who would otherwise be cast to the side and further isolated from society. In a similar way, this article reminds us of the dangers of punishment/reward and isolation punishment. It draws comparisons to the prison system in which freedom is stripped and replaced with blind compliance. She states “if you are preparing young people for freedom, then community is a better place for discipline than solitary confinement” (p.174). Returning to the first reading about Sean and his repeated segregation from the group, it is apparent how this approach can cause further harm and isolation for the child.

    Pulling together both of these anecdotal readings, the last reading was a more academic approach speaking to the intersection of race and dis/abilities in school settings based on CRT. Speaking to how these and other factors that may set a child apart, or not, from the "norm" influence the kind of education given. This article calls for the education system, similarly to the other readings, to look at each student as "whole" instead of labeling them in these ways that have been previously used to isolate and mistreat marginalized populations. It states that educators should "desire to reject forces, practices, and institutions that attempt to construct dis/ability based on differences from normative cultural standards" (p.18). In this way I think it summarizes the philosophy of all the readings this week. If we are to challenge the practices and ideologies of the past, we must educate from a more informed place. We have to understand the damage that our current way of creating curriculum causes, especially to those groups of students who don't fit in to the "norms" established by our society. We know better, so we should do better.

    After reading the first two articles I admittedly was left with the question - how much can teachers be expected to do? I agree, 100% with the ideas and philosophy's presented and examined here, but what about when the school environment is not enough? The writer in the first story observed the differences in Sean's environment at home. In his case he has a supportive, attentive, relatively safe and happy household (although still lacking from children in a two parent home). However, that is not always the case for children who are struggling in school. Sometimes the weight of the terrible side of the world, the unhealthy/fear-based reactions, traumatic feelings, and unsafe environment outside of the school building may be louder than our love. I struggle with knowing that sometimes even our very best, loving, and supportive classroom may not be enough to educate a child in a generalized setting. What then? I perhaps partially answered my own question looking back at the quote I started this post with - all we can do is our best.