From a good friend of mine...

top-down, trickle down..no good man. equal, inclusive, interactive, critical, etc.. is the way to go

Amen...

The teacher should not be the one who has all the answers which cannot be challenged, as if what she or he says is sacrosanct. Sometimes, we have answers, sometimes we don't. I told my therapist that sometimes I am anxious when I see my master teachers seemingly knowing everything, but I comfort myself in seeing others and myself potentially admitting that yes, we do not have all the answers. Sometimes, humility goes a long way in establishing rapport with students, especially avoiding the whole top-down mentality when it comes to content knowledge. Students may bring what we as teachers feel are misconceptions, that may be true, but could we not allow them to examine evidence that might contradict what they bring, instead of just correcting them and leaving it as that? I wonder if we correct students without giving them a say in defending or challenging their own ideas, do we turn them off when it seems that we are not giving their ideas the respect that an inclusive and critical classroom might?

I guess this is where I feel a bit uncomfortable in presenting ideas as if they are set in stone. As I moved farther along in EDUC 542, I found myself moving away from presenting Big Ideas in the form of statements, even when I had big ideas guide the students' research. The lesson plans I write tend to focus on open-ended questions where there might not be a correct answer. One of the last lesson plans I was working on was a war crimes tribunal that the students would hold, trying the Truman administration on their decision to drop the atomic bomb. It might seem astonishing to hold an American president accountable in this manner, but could this not be an opportunity to model holding the most powerful among us accountable, showing them that they are not above the law? 

What I'm noticing in my scripts, that I should do a better job in framing what I say in the form of questions...such as "Does American exceptionalism mean that what we do is justified and excused simply because we are the good guys?" I realize that yes, that question may itself be biased, but I do not claim to be impartial if I cannot. However, what I can do is to present dilemmas such as the decision to drop the atomic bomb in a form that might allow students to choose sides and then present their arguments in the interest of contributing to the classroom's funds of knowledge where everyone, teacher, students, and everyone else deposits knowledge into a common account.

Resistance and Revolution

Mobilizing Teaching Not only for knowledge but for Resistance and Revolution

Inspired by Michael Morgan, who created the Teachers for Revolution group at the MAT @ USC, I too want to brainstorm ways how we, not just teachers but more importantly students can make the change in our lives that we deserve, instead of waiting for the establishment to move at its snail-like pace.

Critical Pedagogy not only involves identifying ways in which the oppressors divide and conquer the people and ways to fight back, to get the consciousness of freedom moving in forms of direct action but...

1. A focus on personalizing education for all students regardless of background, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Is the material relevant for us students? Do the standards connect to the lives of students or do they favor a certain group? Do the material and curriculum we present leave behind groups who do not identify with them? Why should students care about the material they learn in school? Why should they care about a bunch of dead guys supposedly making history while the voices of the forgotten linger in the dustbin of history to be silenced into oblivion.
2. Student activism, not led by teachers or such, but student led. A prime example is the National Student Walkout promoted by Wisconsin High school students themselves, belying the myth of the apathetic high schooler unconcerned about anything besides video games. Change comes from the people, and who better than students who are the future leaders of the nation.
3. Students creating history themselves in an active manner, instead of learning passively about people whom they may not relate to. The protest above is history in the making, and it might be studied by future generations of students and inspire them to even greater heights. Passivity in the standards should be replaced with standards that highlight the struggle of the people to gain legitimacy, to fight for their rights, and to push back against any and all attempts to oppress them.
4. Focus on students creating knowledge instead of relying on the banking model of education, where teachers "deposit" information into the minds of students, a model that Paolo Friere criticized in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Students are not blank slates that come without knowledge and an awareness. You ask them about the issues in their own lives, and they will show you a side different from the establishment's stereotype of the apathetic student, yet another example of a stereotype used by those in power to demean and to diminish those who could potentially rise up against them.
5. Big Ideas, not in the form of statements as if what the teacher says goes but rather in the form of questions where students find and research the answers for themselves. Yes, how we present the questions and material may in itself be biased as well, but it is a step above presenting a big idea to guide students' research instead of having the research lead students to THEIR answers.
6. Student-based texts, not only relating to the standards themselves, not only having them create blogs, but creating their own voices. Their voices should not be just solely used to learn the material and to present it in their own way. They have their own concerns, their own fears, their own goals in life, their own opinions on the events around them. Yet we ignore their voices at our own peril. You look on Facebook and you see protests being led by students such as the protest at Gunderson High against the Westboro Baptist Church people. Likewise, we have many examples of primary sources that we read. The example that comes to mind is the Diary of Anne Frank, who was 15 when she died in the death camps. Numerous others include letters, journals, diaries, blogposts, etc. Students will find a way to have their voices heard, and the school leaves those voices behind in favor of a hidden curriculum that silences dissent and silences innovation, risk-taking, and change.
7. Standards which are student-orientated, with a focus on critical multiculturalism, not liberal multiculturalism which trivializes diversity to the "let's celebrate all cultures, especially their foods!" but a critical multiculturalism that challenges the status quo and the institutionalized isms that back the status quo and the establishment's power.
8. Students above all...