Steve says:

"I have the feeling that the reason many students appear to Catherine to be 'deficient, uncritical, insufficiently inspired' in dealing with academic issues, is that they have not  read very much. The solution is to encourage them to read more and increase their knowledge. Without this knowledge I do not believe that a language teacher can teach them 'critical thinking.'"

A teacher can say, and a student can hear, whatever a student can read.  If so, then a teacher can teach what a text can teach--according to the student's openness and ability to understand what is being said or read.   Commonly, however, the two go together.  

In this sense, the writers of books are also our teachers, though in a more remote sense than in the hearing-speaking experience.  In our logic classes, students read the standard author Copi (as example) and, if they understand what's in that text at all, improve their critical thinking skills.   And a student can read Freire's books and learn to become more politically aware.  Or a teacher can assign a reading of Animal Farm or Peter Rabbit (as examples--virtually any text will do) and discuss phonemes, the meaning and relation of words, the logical or grammatical order of sentences, or speculate on the author's meaning and the psychological, social, or political implications of either text.  

In my experience, adult students find the latter discussion much more interesting than the former and probably wouldn't have read either without having a teacher guide their educational experience.   Also, in that either/or choice, we can see the broad outlines of the distinction between whole language and more differentiated language instruction--but not a loss of the ability of a language teacher to teach our students critical thinking or to help them become more politically aware.

We certainly can.  But to think that teachers **should not** teach critical thinking, or help students become more politically aware, especially when the opportunity arises, is another issue altogether.  


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

 


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Kaufmann 
  To: Catherine B. King ; The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:03 PM
  Subject: Re: [PD 4128] Re: When are teachers condescending?


  I have the feeling that the reason many students appear to Catherine to be " "deficient, uncritical, insufficiently inspired" in dealing with academic issues, is that they have not  read very much. The solution is to encourage them to read more and increase their knowledge. Without this knowledge I do not believe that a language teacher can teach them "critical thinking".


  Steve Kaufmann
  604-922-8551
   



   
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