David,

 

Very nicely done.

 

An additional way of dealing with this issue, or at least that I have found fruitful is to simply accept that I am a  more proficient reader than the adult literacy students that I teach are or are very likely to be.  We can equivocate around the edges of that, which nonetheless remain issue begging.

 

Where I go from here with this realization is something like a big "so what."  "So I know this, you know that.  This and that doesn't make me better than you or you better than I, just different.  I happen to have this set of skills--these gifts if you well.  You have your own gifts and skills.  What is important is what we do with them including our capacity to share them with each other.

 

I think Freire felt along these lines as did Dewey in his somewhat different way.  Neither of these foundational educator-philosophers dismissed or marginalized the specialized knowledge of the teacher.  Nether did they minimize the centrality of empathetic and critical dialogue as the central classroom activity in which both learners and teachers were joint pioneers--both teaching and both learning in their distinctive ways.  As a liberationist theologian, Freire's emphasis on agape love as a central praxeological aim of the classroom dynamic is something perhaps many of us embrace in avowedly less theological terms, without which, I maintain, we cannot fully understand its meaning and significance.

 

Here is a fascinating video by Freire with English sub-titles on the role of transcendent faith in relationship to his philosophy of life.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wz5y2V1af0


Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:08:46 -0400
From: david at collings.com
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov; Kearney_Lykins at yahoo.com
Subject: [PD 4121] Re: On the meaning of politics and why teaching is political

Kearney,

I appreciate your braveness in yelling "Fire" in this crowded room when you know that everyone is going to run at you with a big hose.

I'll have to admit that my first impulse was to come running at you as well.  You poked fingers in a lot of eyes with just a few sentences.  But I think the thing that bothered me most was the word "condescending."  I thought, "I'm not condescending when I teach someone something they don't know."  But then, I thought through the process a little further.  I mentally placed myself in a classroom and here is what went through my head.  "I know how to divide mixed fractions, and you don't.  Let me show you."  As I placed myself in the role of teacher, I realized that it's really easy to let my ego slide in a little condescending attitude about the difference between me, "the person who knows," and you, "the person who doesn't know."  And when you learn, from me, a method for dividing mixed fractions, you haven't really caught up.  I still know more than you.  There's still something about me that's better than you.

It's tough to keep this kind of thinking out of my classroom.  I believe that I can do it.  I can remember specific instances of working one-on-one with a student and believing that the only difference between us was a temporary inequality.  I had a few tips and tricks to share.  A little practice and we would be even.  But I'm not sure that in the back of my head I wasn't thinking, "You're doing well.  But I still know a lot that you don't know."  

So how do I avoid this ego-driven process if I work as a teacher?  To make myself believe that there is no inherent difference between me and student "Joe," I have get to know him.  I have to learn something about his likes and dislikes, his family, his hobbies.  In some way, I have to believe that he and I are the same.  Or I just have to get really good at turning off my ego and focusing on the moment of teaching. - the moment where I'm listening intently to what a student needs and responding with just the right thing to get to the next "Aha!"

Take care,

David C.


David Collings
david at collings.com


Kearney Lykins wrote: 



David,

I did not label anyone. I did however label certain terms.  

I understand the difference between critical thinking and critical pedagogy, and was glad to see that several recent contributors clarified that when they use the term "critical thinking," the term does not subsume "critical theory."

 

Best,

Kearney

 
 
Kearney_Lykins at yahoo.com








From: David Rosen <DJRosen at theworld.com>
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Fri, October 30, 2009 10:37:12 AM
Subject: [PD 4102] Re: On the meaning of politics and why teaching is political

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

>

>

>

>

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

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult Literacy Professional Development mailing list

> professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

>

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/professionaldevelopment

> 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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