Ira Shor
Quote: He urged teachers to encourage students to question their experience in school: "you must arouse children's curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it’s very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers".
I really liked this quote because it true that for students to get a better experience and to encourage them to think why do they come to school, the first thing to begin with is discussing why is school important and why do we need to learn. If the teacher opens up with this then the students school year will be focus on doing good in school because they had the question answer at the beginning and aren’t lost during the rest of the year as to why they should continue to come to school that it isn’t a waste of time. They are more connecting to what their learning well benefit them in the future. I like how she says that it important to show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough to investigate and come up with their answers. For me that interesting because I never was really asked this question during my early years of learning in school, I never really explore with my teachers the reason to why I had to come to school. It important to do this because that way the students will be before of knowing their responsibility and a commitment they have to do to be able to move on and get an education.
Quote: If the students task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.
I agree with this quote because the students aren’t really learning any skill if they just memorize rules and existing knowledge, they need to be able to question the subjects matter and be able to somehow interpret their own way. If you are only memorizing then you aren’t really learning anything because you are unable to understand or use it. The whole purpose of learning is to be able to think and understand any kind of subject matter. You need to be able to reflect on it and any connect to what you see in the real world. If students are only taught to memorize the materials then really they can’t question or develop their knowledge or even think critical about anything because they are restricted to what they can do with that material. I remember that when I was in middle school I used to memorize the answers to a test and then forget all about it when I was done with it, which really I wasn’t getting any out of what I had learned. The way school are preparing students for tests make them only memorize and not apply it to when they really need it. I say that they should be able to question everything they learn and instead of memorizing they should be encourage to think beyond what they know because they are capable of doing that.
Quote: Do students feel free to disagree with the teacher? Do students respond to each other’s remarks? Do they act like involved participants or like alienated observers in the exchange of comments in the classroom? Are students asked to think critically about the material and to see knowledge as a field of contending interpretations, or are they fed knowledge as an official consensus? Do students work cooperatively, or are the class a competitive exchange favoring the most assertive people?”
If you look at all this question the basic question asked is are the students involved in their learning or are they just in the classroom to be giving lectures to only listen to. One thing that I liked about Shor was that she points out the idea of participation, which is one elaborating item to value in the class room. They whole idea that it’s very important for students to participate makes big differences in the learning process of kids. Rather than just give a lecture it’s also important to get the students to response not only to the teacher but also to one another to see if they understand what is being taught. Comments in the class can build others to get new ideas and even interpretations of which they weren’t thinking before. By being able to work cooperatively and exchange thoughts on the material then they are moving towards a new level of thinking. If students especially young children are involved and are participating then they will be more interesting in learning even if you put them to just stand up and get out of their chairs for two seconds they will feel alive and really to learn. If you just have them sitting down and just talking then by the end you will lose them and not have their attention. I agree with Shor t with the idea that people life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally enjoy by learning to interact and experiment what they are being giving. They learn better if they participate and are drawn in the classroom.
Shor remind me of what we have been learning thought out the class semester and all the reading we have talk about, Shor points out a lot of the problems that teachers face with, Shor kind of says it all with this article about who’s in power, about the privilege and the kind of classes form in the classrooms. Shor influenced me to think about what teachers are really suppose to be doing and how schooling should be promoting to kids. She got me thinking of what kind of schooling I had when I was young and the kid of education system I see today with my service learning. I can related a lot of her ideas to what is said in this article to what I observed each week with the students I tutor, I see a lot of these students in their role in the classroom and what kind of education they are being delivered.
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