The “Good” Student and Common Sense

What does it mean to be a “good” student according to the commonsense?

Being a “good” student according to the common sense refers to a student seen as a well-behaved, ‘golden standard’ or ‘desire’. This is a student that follows the rules, conforms to the environment, respects authority, and reiterates knowledge the closest to how it was taught.

“mainstream society often places value on certain kinds of behaviours, knowledge, and skills, and schools would disadvantage students by not teaching what often matters in schools and in society” (p. 22)

Characteristics of a ‘good’ student:

• Repeating information correctly
• Saying the right things in the right ways
• Be the kind of students schools and society hold value over
• Conforms to the environment
• follows rules
• no rebelling
• no student input on how to learn
• understand their role as a student
• respect the teachers authority
• meeting the expected requirements

Characteristics of a ‘bad’ student:

• Students that couldn’t learn in the same “golden standard” way as other students
• Students that have wandering minds
• Out of the box thinkers
• Students who need adaptations
• Students who like to explore different ways of learning and knowing
• Students who appear to have “behavioral issues”

 

Which students are privileged by this definition of the good student?

This way of thinking privileges students who share the same common sense, or those that conform to the common sense being taught. In the reading, Kumashiro talked about a “commonsensical view of learning” (p. 24). The students that acknowledge and follow the same commonsensical ways of learning are the students that are seen as the ‘good’ students. There is no controversy in this way of operating. Things are set to say ‘this is how it is, so this is how it is going to be, and this is how you are going to do it’.

“we identify what knowledge and skills we want students to learn, and afterward we assess whether or not students can demonstrate that they indeed learned such things” (p. 24)

I think this quote is noteworthy because it shows the underlying flow of the oppressed status quo. We teach students what WE think is important, we teach students in ways WE feel is effective, we evaluate their performances and their abilities to correctly demonstrate OUR beliefs to what we think are important for them to know. As teacher’s we should be seeking deeper meanings to the content in which we teach.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Why is this content important?
• How can students implement this content into their own lives?
• How will this content help students to accomplish?
• How is my ways of teaching following/challenging the common sense?
• How can I be a more effective teacher?

 

What is made impossible to see/understand/believe because of these commonsense ideas?

Differences are viewed as invaluable.

What if instead of telling the students that don’t conform they are seen as ‘trouble makers’ and THEY are the ones that have issues, we take a step back and see how often invisibly biased outlooks on curriculum, practice and learning have on different types of students?

Meeting standards = common sense 

I think this understanding of the common sense neglects depth to what students are learning. Learning should be controversial. Learning should have you making questions. Learning should urge you to dig deeper. Learning should make you conscious of your common sense and how the content is connected to it.

Being comfortable, over, recognizing oppression

A lot of the time we won’t see trouble in school made, not child made, issues because we are on the unaffected/benefiting side of it. Labelling a kid as “misbehaved” is a lot easier than addressing their views on what they know, how they see the world, and how that challenges our views. We as humans are creatures of habit. We are comfortable in what we know and we like to stick to it.

Avoiding ‘crisis’

When it comes to teaching using ‘crisis’ methods there is some controversy. Looking through the lens of the common sense, we can notice teachers who support the status quo, and those who decide to challenge it. In this analysis, we see how avoiding the commonsense further perpetuates oppression, staying comfortable in what you know, and supporting the status quo.

Teachers that support the status quo:

1. prevent or gloss over uncomfortable moments in order to keep the learning process moving, as when avoiding discussions of “controversial” issues like racism, homophobia, and social differences that can generate heated disagreement and resistance
2. assert that students should not be learning about such emotional and political issues
3. believe that inducing states of crises are unethical ways of teaching

Teachers that support ‘crisis’:

1. help the student to make sense of who the student is and navigate the world in which the student lives
2. “learning through crisis is not a process that can be standardized for all students. Teachers need to be flexible, attentive to the particularites of different students, and aware of the unpredictability of their responses.” (pg. 31)
3. teachers need to structure experiences that can help students to work through crisis
4. coming to the realization that how we make sense of the world is not completely accurate, we need to recognize and work through these feelings of disorientation

“If students are not experiencing crisis, they likely are not learning things that challenge the knowledge they have already learned that supports the status quo, which means that they likely are not learning to recognize and challenge the oppression that plays out daily in their lives” (p. 32). When it comes to teaching students effectively, we need to get them, as well as ourselves, out of our comfort zones and attack content from different angles.

Challenging oppression will always be a work in progress

Oppression can be a difficult part of one’s teaching philosophy because it leads to making yourself uncomfortable, further educating yourself is needed and it is constantly a work of progress. Acknowledging and making aware the oppression that is found in our curriculum, in our ways of teaching, in our classrooms, and in our society is a lot to constantly be conscious of. It can be overwhelming to teach and learn, and that is why it is a controversial concern. Like the reading shares, “challenging oppression does not consist solely of changing the ways that individuals think and feel. Challenging oppression requires addressing the broader social context in which we live” (p. 28). When it comes to challenging oppression. Take baby steps. Take it small. Everyday find yourself in one situation that consciously has you disarming your common sense and challenging to view oppressive behaviours, actions and situations in a new way. Educate yourself when you can. Implement anti-oppressive education in layers. We are teachers and a lot of us will want to make a difference, but we cannot change the world in one night. It takes time, effort, practice and patience.

 

If you are reading my blog, I challenge you to ask yourself these questions this week:

Why do I often feel invested in relearning only certain things?

What effect does relearning only certain things have on my sense of self? My relations with others? My belonging in this world?

What effect does teaching only certain things have on race relations, socio-economic distinction, gender norms and so forth?