When I think about what it means to learn, I can’t help but consider the environment. A few years ago I worked, for college credit, as a teacher assistant in a large kindergartner class. The school was located in a diverse community of mostly working class families. In the class, I helped with grading, setting up centers, leading story time and generally helping out where needed. I enjoyed working with all the kindergartners, but I particularly remember this one child named Francisco. He was a vivacious, bright and boisterous child who loved doing art and telling little stories. Francisco’s home life was a bit stressful and, at times, he could be somewhat disruptive in class. I never thought his behavior was problematic because hey, he’s a five year old boy! Anyway, I guess my unprofessional opinion didn’t hold much sway because this child was put on what seemed to be some powerful drugs that rendered him calmer and better behaved, but essential disinterested. As far as I could tell, he had a complete personality change. And I discovered that Francisco wasn’t the only child in the class on some type of behavior management drug. Call me naïve, but it seemed an extreme measure to drug this child. I have since learned that this practice, prescribing drugs for ADHD and other behavior problems are quite common in public schools. My point is that the environment is an important factor in creating a nurturing space for learning and an overcrowded kindergartner class where control trumps all is a missed opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, the teacher I worked with was dedicated and cared about her students, but learning can’t take place in a vacuum even if you use “backward design” to present some fabulous curriculum. To take this environmental concern a step further, public school systems and policy makers seem obsessed with the measurement fetish of standardize testing while states, according to Henry Giroux, an educator and commentator, “reduce public spheres designed to protect children to containment centers and warehouses that modeled themselves after prisons” (Giroux,2011,Para 1). If this sounds harsh, read about the fully privatized New Orleans school system, or Arne Duncan's previous place of employment, Chicago Public Schools.
I have to confess that I’m a complete novice when it comes to being familiar with particular learning strategies and, for example, theories like Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences (something taking this course should improve). Before this class, I vaguely knew about the different ways people learned, i.e. – spatial, logical-mathematical etc, but I’ve since read a few articles on MI and can posit that the egalitarian tenor of MI would be in direct conflict with the Neoliberal environment I describe in the above discussion. Guess I’ll stop now.
Giroux, H. (2011, February 8). Torturing democracy. Truthout. Retrieved from http://www.truth-out.org/torturing-democracy67570
