Good Morning fellow bloggers,
I wanted to put some of my thinking out there about Buffy. When she talked about the "it" in every child that shines through him or her, she questioned how that fits with standards, outcomes, targeted goals in school systems. I wonder how this language of learning we use in curriculum allows for every child to have a good appearance in the world and honour their "it".
Buffy challenged us to consider multiple perspectives and the many ways of knowing. Yet who really gets to decide around matters of education? Does the day to day life in schools with children truly reflect and respect difference?
When watching "Growing Up Canadian" I was struck by how "young" our education system really is in Canada. I heard Tim Tyson speak this week and he talked about how our school system is largely based on the industrial model, creating workers for an industrial job market, and that overall, schools have not changed. Looking at the video, it is smug of us to say how far we have come. When considering certain practices in education, are we all that radically different as a system then we were 50 years ago?
One critism: In this retrospective, the consideration of residential schools in the video was grossly understated, in my opinion. When we look at the history of school in Canada, residential schools are viewed as one of Canada's most shamed actions. It relates directly to the question about what we will be sorry for in the next 50 years. How can we see where we are going if we are not looking honestly at the past? I understand that this video had a "feel good-walk down memory lane" sense to it. I think that is why I enjoyed it so much. But I think this video provides a platform for critical questioning of past, present and future.
So I going to throw this out there and suggest that we might be apologizing for a few things.
How about not giving greater importance to our social responsibilities to our fellow man?
Not emphasising the climate crisis?
How about not helping children to be open to and embrace difference?
Perpetutating and valuing our insatiable appetites as comsumers?
Technology's influence and the way the world will change?
...I could go on.
Yikes! What is in my coffee this morning?
My definition of curriculum is somehow rooted in the above questions. What is an educated person for the future? What do we need to know about as human beings to contribute and grow as a society?
That's all for today.
Lorelei
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hey Lorelei,
Glad the cofee was good. To respond to your questions about relationships--educational and otherwise I think that caring, trust, and an unconditional valuing of the "other" does it for all relationships.
Intriguing the question about what we will apologize for. In a sense it is a cynical question. I think that as long as schooling is done to people (and frankly I can't really vision it not being like that to an extent), there will always be something that will not be truly respectful. Sad to think.
Post a Comment