I find that Kearney has quite accurately inferred, read between the lines,
gone beyond the surface meaning of words, (all good critical thinking
skills) to identify the ideological similarity in the use of the following
terms by a majority of posters here.

"critical thinking, critical analysis, social change, social progress,
social justice, and The Change Agent"

I agree with her, and I do not think that Kearney lacks critical thinking
skills, nor would I accept that I lack these skills. I also believe that you
can apply critical thinking skills and arrive at a different conclusion.

In other words, our prejudices count for more than any "critical thinking
skills" in how we judge events that affect us. To teach critical thinking
skills implies, to me, trying to persuade people to think differently about
things. Given the authority of the teacher over the student in many cases,
this teaching of "critical thinking skills" is an abuse of the position of
the teacher.

I prefer the model of improving the reading skills of learners so that they
can access as many different sources of information as possible, following
their interests and curiosity, and form their own opinions without
interference from the teacher.

Steve Kaufmann
604-922-8551
 <http://www.lingq.com/?referral=steve>
<http://www.lingq.com/?referral=steve>


--- @ WiseStamp Signature <http://www.wisestamp.com/email-install>. Get it
now <http://www.wisestamp.com/email-install>


On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 8:37 AM, David Rosen <DJRosen at theworld.com> wrote:


> Hello Kearney,

>

> You wrote:

>

> > Can we all just get this out in the open once and for all and

> > acknowledge that terms (as they are most commonly used in this

> > listserve) such as critical thinking, critical analysis, social

> > change, social progress, social justice, and The Change Agent, are

> > all ideologically based vehicles that assume that there is something

> > inherently wrong with society as it exists in general (and with

> > America's in particular) and that the remedy is an inherenly left-

> > leaning, if not outright socialist or communist one.

>

> I, for one,  can't agree. You have joined together concepts that are

> not all alike, and have stereotyped them all as radical leftist social

> change.  I, for example, think teaching critical thinking skills is

> part of the job of teachers in the U.S. , teachers of kids and adults

> alike, teachers of math and science, as well as of social studies and

> languages and language arts. I am not a follower of Marx, Lenin, or

> for that matter Freire (although I have respect for Freire's

> approach). I also think memorizing, and drill and practice, in good

> measure, can be useful learning tools. I bet there are others in this

> discussion (whether they have contributed or not) who also do not fit

> your generalizations

>

> I urge you to use critical thinking in discerning important

> differences in the points of view expressed here, instead of pasting

> labels on all those participating in this discussion.

>

> David J. Rosen

> DJRosen at theworld.com

>

>

>

>

> On Oct 30, 2009, at 9:49 AM, Kearney Lykins wrote:

>

> >

> >

> >

> > I am tired of reading posts that dance around this issue, as if no

> > one knows the names of the steps.

> >

> > Literacy teachers should teach people to read, write, and speak.

> > Learners should not have to be subjected to implicit or explicit

> > political agendas from teachers who think they know better than

> > others. In Steve's latest post (PD 4087) he very cogently unmasks

> > the condescending nature of teaching "critical thinking," that there

> > is an assumption that learners don't already think critically, or

> > that they don't do it as well as the teacher. Or that students are

> > in more dire need of "emancipatory change" than teachers are.  I

> > find it interesting that the Friere followers are so quick to

> > abandon his leaderless classroom when it comes to critical thinking

> > and pressing "social justice" issues.

> >

> > It is my understanding that the methods for teaching people literacy

> > skills went relatively unchanged over several millennia, and that

> > these methods actually worked long before anyone heard of "praxis."

> > I believe Marx, Lenin, and Darwin learned to read in this quaint,

> > disparaged way.

> >

> > I now await the barrage of comments from educators who will insist

> > that rote memorization drills and vocabulary lists have oppressed

> > me, and that I am but an oblivious political pawn.

> >

> >

> > In good spirits,

> >

> > Kearney

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Kearney_Lykins at yahoo.com

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > From: Federico Salas-Isnardi <fs_dos at yahoo.com>

> > To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List <

> professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

> > >

> > Sent: Thu, October 29, 2009 8:23:06 AM

> > Subject: [PD 4085] On the meaning of politics and why teaching is

> > political

> >

> >

> > Thank you, Janet for your contribution about politics.  I would go

> > one step further in arguing for a political education or political

> > literacy:  the word politics comes from Greek πολιτικός

> > (politikόs) which simply means citizen, civil, of (or regarding) a

> > citizen, and of (or regarding) citizenship.  πολιτικός, in

> > turn, comes from Greek πόλις (pόlis) which means city or

> > inhabited territory or island.

> >

> > Thus, everytime we engage students/adults/citizens we are engaging

> > in a political activity.  We cannot ignore that when we deal with

> > the inhabitants (I don't want to use the word citizens in this

> > context) of any territory we are dealing with the nature of politics.

> >

> >

> > Some people (and some politicians) give politics a bad name, but the

> > fact remains that politics is everything we do that involves us as

> > citizens of this nation.  As you said, nobody is advocating to

> > engage our students in a specific end of the political spectrum but

> > rather that we should accept our political role as teachers and

> > facilitators or learning which is to engage our students to the

> > extent possible in a critical analysis of what they learn or they

> > are confronted with.  Otherwise we are giving our students only data

> > to deposit in their "bank" which may never be useful to them.

> >

> >

> >

> > federico

> >

> > Federico Salas-Isnardi

> > Adult Literacy Specialist, Texas Center for the Advancement of

> > Literacy and Learning

> > Secretary, Executive Board,  Association of Adult Literacy

> > Professional Developers

> > Adult Education Consultant, Houston, Texas

> >

> > "The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long but it Bends toward

> > Justice."  Martin Luther King

> >

> >

> > From: Janet Isserlis <Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu>

> > To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List <

> professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

> > >

> > Sent: Wed, October 28, 2009 7:50:27 AM

> > Subject: [PD 4080] Re: Swinging the Sword of Literacy in Iraq

> >

> > Re: comments about Art's post, education in Iraq and the whole

> > notion of political literacy.

> >

> > Just looked up the word politics, but the definition kept using the

> > word "political"

> > so then I looked that up:

> >

> > po·liti·cal (pə lit′i kəl)

> >

> > adjective

> >

> > of or concerned with government, the state, or politics

> > having a definite governmental organization

> > engaged in or taking sides in politics political parties

> > of or characteristic of political parties or politicians political

> > pressure

> >

> > http://www.yourdictionary.com/political

> >

> >

> > so now, to reply, simply, to those who believe we shouldn't impose a

> > particular set of political beliefs:

> > NO ONE here has said we should.  Art has spoken eloquently to

> > addressing the skills, knowledge and strategies needed to understand

> > how government works and to enable adults to make choices  (and/or

> > support them in making choices) that best suit their own interests

> > and beliefs.  NO ONE is advocating for any one system, or set of

> > beliefs.  No one is using the adult learning center as a soap box.

> > Good educators are listening to learners, living in shared

> > communities, discussing what goes on and using language and learning

> > skills, critical thinking, healthy debate, use of media and other

> > resources, to enable everyone to get on as well as they can in the

> > communities in which they live.

> >

> > Janet Isserlis

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > ----------------------------------------------------

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> >

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> > Email delivered to djrosen at theworld.com

> >

> > Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki

> >

> http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development

>

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>




-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
604-922-8514
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