Week Four
Reading Response:
A good student needs to be quiet, but when it comes to parent teacher conferences the teacher says “you need to speak up more”, but we are told we need to be quiet and pay attention. There is a contradiction that students encounter when the 'bad' students are told they need to be quiet, while the 'good' students are told to speak up and share their ideas more. Being the good student creates a connection with behaviour rather than learning. The teacher may leave sub notes saying watch out for these kids. The substitute teacher is immediately treating the kids differently because they have this pre-made assumptions that these are the “bad kids” of the classroom. When we connect the good student to a behavioral trait, we create mechanical students. Following a protocol like walking in the hallway, we line up in a line, hands to ourselves and if anyone makes a noise while we walk in the hallway then we go back to the classroom and begin again. As students we feel pressure to be the good students. If we are the good student then the teacher will care/check on the student who is doing the best rather than the student who is struggling. We care about the students who are doing well because “they are doing their job” while the other students who are not paying attention “don’t deserve” attention because they aren't cooperating and following procedure. This ideal and pressure to be the 'good student' can have negative impacts of the students that are singled out as being good. Students who are perpetually the good students begin to carry a burden that they need to be finished their work the fastest. If they are done their work first, they are still the good student for working so hard. However, this mind set can begin to impact the student's level of care they have for the work being done. They may begin to care more about handing in the work rather than completing it correctly.
- What does it mean to be a "good" student according to the commonsense? Which students are privileged by this definition of the good student? What is made impossible to see/understand/believe because of these commonsense ideas?
A good student needs to be quiet, but when it comes to parent teacher conferences the teacher says “you need to speak up more”, but we are told we need to be quiet and pay attention. There is a contradiction that students encounter when the 'bad' students are told they need to be quiet, while the 'good' students are told to speak up and share their ideas more. Being the good student creates a connection with behaviour rather than learning. The teacher may leave sub notes saying watch out for these kids. The substitute teacher is immediately treating the kids differently because they have this pre-made assumptions that these are the “bad kids” of the classroom. When we connect the good student to a behavioral trait, we create mechanical students. Following a protocol like walking in the hallway, we line up in a line, hands to ourselves and if anyone makes a noise while we walk in the hallway then we go back to the classroom and begin again. As students we feel pressure to be the good students. If we are the good student then the teacher will care/check on the student who is doing the best rather than the student who is struggling. We care about the students who are doing well because “they are doing their job” while the other students who are not paying attention “don’t deserve” attention because they aren't cooperating and following procedure. This ideal and pressure to be the 'good student' can have negative impacts of the students that are singled out as being good. Students who are perpetually the good students begin to carry a burden that they need to be finished their work the fastest. If they are done their work first, they are still the good student for working so hard. However, this mind set can begin to impact the student's level of care they have for the work being done. They may begin to care more about handing in the work rather than completing it correctly.