Talking Points #10

Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change by Ira Shor

1.)"Students come of age in a society where average people do not participate in governance, in framing major purposes, in making policy, or in having a strong voice in media and puhlic affairs"

- This is talking about the type of non questioning, non participating society that kids are growing up in. This lack of involvement and critical analysis/questioning of society and what is going on in the world is directly related to the type of majority education that is going on in schools. The lack of participation and critical thinking of why, how, and how can it change in school rolls over into the real world.

2.) "For example, it's very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we to 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 love this quote and actually think I'm going to use this idea when I start teaching. I want my classroom to be one in which kids are questioning why and not just taking down notes like machines because they are told to. I feel this way because of my experiences in school where I felt like not too many teachers encouraged a questioning and critical thinking atmosphere.

3.) "Empowering knowledge is sought by questioning rules, work relations, and daily episodes often

taken for granted"

- This quote comes from the problem posing section in Shor's piece. He's saying that empowering knowledge comes from a problem posing style of education in which the students and teacher work together in a form of critical questioning and thinking examining society and everyday actions through regular curriculum material.

Thoughts: Overall, I thought this piece was the most difficult to read and follow of any of them. Because of its length, I split the reading up into a couple different sessions, which probably made me understand the big picture a little less. A few points really came across to me, though. Like from my first quote, I saw the lack of participation in society and government from ordinary people in society, and saying that it comes from the lack of critical inquiry and participation in school is directly related really made me see how that could be true. Mainly, though, I think Shor called for a sort of school environment that was more a so called problem posing one rather than a banking one in which students and teachers worked more together, rather than teachers feeding students information machine-like. All in all, I agreed with what I could understand with the article and will take some of the ideas into my own classroom someday.

- The link on Ira Shor is a video, but I couldn't post it as one for some reason.