blogging… the reflective journal that i should have kept from the beginning. maybe you could have saved me from those repetitive stumbles.
there’s no links for this post. unfortunately, people, you’re alone with my thoughts. all b.s. you’ve been forewarned, then.
no matter how poor the quality, education is a necessity; at some level, all people - students, teachers, administrators – that continue to have some stake in education, believe this. if a pivotal goal of education is to produce analytical, questioning citizens, then critical literacy has to be a major component of your classroom, her classroom, his classroom, and my classroom.
there seems to be an old, unspoken agreement that is always skirted in education. it is an agreement of trust.
students choosing to daily walk back into my classroom symbolizes that they trust me with their development, their minds. they harbor a hope that i’ll provide the education and human care that they, at some level, desire. when the lesson falls flat, when i can’t make it to school, when they don’t understand the new concepts, or when i forget that they’re sad because their grandpa (their PopPop) died, i’ve reneged on my end of our virtual contract. consequently, the strength of the agreement begins to lessen somewhat.
active vessels are what i want my students to become.
sometimes, they start out the course not yet at the vessel stage. limitedly receptive to the social and scholastic themes of the class, they feel outside their fellow classmates and the curricula. slowly, as that feeling of indifference starts to melt, they are considering what is being taught, but are still not honoring the student-teacher agreement terms. the moment that they start to ask “Why?”, students apply ideas to their world, embarking on the journey to become active vessels in school, and (with luck) will continue the behavior to become active citizens in the community. even though we are teachers, the parts of the contract that we want students to fulfill have little to do with education and more with learning how to conduct themselves in society and how to manipulate society to their and everyone’s benefit. moreover, such actions demonstrate that they care as much about their development and well-being as much as we do. although, teachers may not consciously admit that students not fulfilling the contract bothers them, undoubtedly it is a source of teacher attrition (Of course, lack of accountability when the administration does not honor its contractual terms to students and teachers also plays a large role in student and teacher burnout, but we won’t get into that mud on this post.).
the agreement’s violation is a pivotal cause of education falling apart today.
that is not to say that all education, or all schools, or all schools located in a certain region or type of community are failing. many schools are succeeding, but in those places where education is shit, the value of the agreement has been nullified. critical literacy’s absence is more than partially to blame. not enough teachers or students are asking the correct, pointed questions. it is happening in some classrooms; teachers are directing curricula to prod students into being fed up, into taking action. in some schools, the administration is providing students and teachers with opportunities for social action to occur. the correct questions lead to the correct answers, answers that can yield glimpses of solutions.
each day is invigorated by instances of inadvertent heroism in which teachers and/or students experience unplanned acts of issue-examination through an analytical lens.
in today’s schools, momentum is supplied to critical literacy through inadvertent heroism. in short, inadvertent heroism is the embodiment of critical literacy in the classroom and is a push that is felt and needed by teachers and students. the students’ perspective values the heroism due to its close mimicking of the real world, full of instances in which immediate decisions need to be made. the imitation flatters students by trusting them to practice and apply situations that they may face soon in the future. the other student benefit, which especially applies to extremely marginalized youth, is that inadvertent heroism (whether enacted or witnessed) helps to combat the negative aspects of the community via clear, immediate displays that the students have power over their lives. although unquantifiable, this latter benefit is extremely important in the way of supporting the idea that inadvertent heroism, that critical literacy, that education is worthwhile.
teachers’ experiences with inadvertent heroism is more focused on the students, on the events in their classroom, etc. – on their professional goals (which is, in many ways, exactly the level the students are trying to reach and, in another sense, parallels the reasons that they engage in critical literacy’s heroism – feelings of empowerment and real world validation). when the classroom’s happenings fall outside of the lesson plan, but the objectives are still fulfilled, this is inadvertent heroism for teachers. this usually happens surprisingly via building the day’s curriculum on the experiences of the students or their ideas. often, students, “good” and “bad”, surprise us by unexpectedly displaying active vessel qualities. benefits of inadvertent heroism to the teacher create professional empowerment as they represent a job well done – our career goals.
selfishness is what drives life.
as altruistic as teachers sometimes attempt to portray ourselves, we are partners in the educational institution for self-benefit. fulfilled by the training of tomorrow’s leaders, by participation in a noble profession or by the freedom of having a captive audience J, teachers do their jobs.
even though students may decry their experience with education, those that return, return because they are satisfied with how it helps them to better themselves. the inadvertent heroism that students experience strengthens their desire to learn and permits them to practice being actors on a simulated world stage. through these experiences, students inch closer and closer to being on the real stage that they desire, a stage where they have equitable status with their adult counterparts.
in all of this talk of critical literacy, there has been some miscommunication. mostly, there is too little recognition that students and teachers are in a symbiotic relationship. we’re here for them and they’re here for us. our happiness is mutually inclusive, and our inadvertent heroism supports it all. likewise, the absence of inadvertent heroism can spell the cracking of the educational process.
my words are part of the problem. here, instead of posing possible answers, i’ve only cast stones.
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