Hello Steve:

Steve says:  "A teacher is condescending when he or she thinks that the learner's way of thinking is deficient, uncritical, insufficiently inspired by Socrates, Aristotle or other canons of Western thought , on insufficiently politically aware, even though the subject matter being taught is not Western thought, nor Western philosophy nor politics, but simply how to speak, read or write better in a language."

I say that we need to own up to the fact that some of our adult students' ways of thinking (even in a masters program, I find) are "deficient, uncritical, insufficiently inspired" not by Socrates, et al, but by anyone who would help them out of their comprehensive (across the spectrum of thought) provincialism and dogmatism.  Rather than condescending, it's merely good on-the-spot analysis on the part of the teacher.  We cannot approach, for instance, uncritical thinking without recognizing it when we see it.  

An example of uncritical thinking is embodied in a student who comes to class thinking that (1) everyone already thinks and experiences the world as he/she does, and, if not, (2) everyone **should** think and experience the world as he/she does.  

I would ask:  Since when do we have to be condescending to (1) recognize ignorance beyond our material/subject matter, e.g., math and to (2) try to help the student develop their potential to become less so?  

This doesn't say, in the extreme:  I know everything, and you (the student) knows nothing.  It says none of us can know anything until first we recognize our own ignorance.  Political awareness--understanding our political ground (already there) and that we don't have to accept the political status quo, is but one part of that "leading out."  

No one says you have to teach directly to political awareness, as example of but one part of the larger educational picture. But the subtle thing is, in terms of political awareness, if we don't help people/adult students become aware of it, then we are de facto complicit in fostering and forwarding whatever that status quo is, and a lack of awareness of it in ourselves and in our students.  

That's the major point here--political order and ground is already there--underneath all teaching ventures--whether they be in democracies or totalitarian regimes.  We can ignore it, and teach around it; but we cannot teach without it's abiding presence.

Catherine King
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Education
National University
San Diego, CA   

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Kaufmann 
  To: david at collings.com ; The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 
  Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 10:34 AM
  Subject: [PD 4123] When are teachers condescending?


  Kearney, David and others.

  A teacher is not condescending when he or she enthusiastically introduces new worlds of knowledge and experience to a learner, as long as those are new worlds that the leaner wants to explore. ( I am talking mainly about adult learners).

  A teacher is condescending when he or she thinks that the learner's way of thinking is deficient, uncritical, insufficiently inspired by Socrates, Aristotle or other canons of Western thought , on insufficiently politically aware, even though the subject matter being taught is not Western thought, nor Western philosophy nor politics, but simply how to speak, read or write better in a language. 

  The Western canon, and the logical and philosophical schools that form part of it, including 19th century diversions like Marxism, are not conditions for learning to read, and, in particular, are not necessarily welcome to people from outside the European, individualistic tradition. 

  I think that the teaching of these disciplines should be left to specialists, and left to programs which are clearly identified as being about philosophy or political economy or Marxism or whatever.  To attempt to teach these under the guise of language teaching can be condescending, in the sense that it is more about showing off than achieving the specific pedagogical goal of improving language skills.


  Steve Kaufmann
  604-922-8551
   



  --- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now





------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  ----------------------------------------------------
  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 cb.king at verizon.net

  Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki 
  http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/professionaldevelopment/attachments/20091102/7c05ba9e/attachment.html