Competition and Caring

Probably the one concept that really struck me so far in The Dreamkeepers is the negative depiction of competition.  I’m not saying that I don’t think competition is negative, but it’s just that competition has always been such a huge part of my “schooled” life that I’ve never even stopped to think about its drawbacks.  Even the institutions that I was a part of outside of school encouraged competition—I was a key player in the Bible sword drill as well as church-related crafting competitions.  I honestly think that the church hosted these events to get younger people involved, so do we just automatically assume that young people need to compete and have the opportunity to “win” something so that they care? 

Of course, the institutions that I’m talking about were all white-run and primarily involved white people; Ladson-Billings seems to imply that competition is mostly a white American preference.  I definitely don’t think that we can limit competition to one group of people, but it makes me think about the practices that I support (or don’t support) in the classroom as a white person attempting to utilize culturally relevant teaching.  Ladson-Billings states that group work doesn’t necessarily equate with cooperative learning, and I’ve noticed this discrepancy when I’ve been teaching.  We have a table set up so that students are naturally in groups already, but they really resist true cooperative learning.  They’ll end up chatting with each other and they rarely get a lot of good stuff done until they’re under the wire with like five minutes left.  I began the year talking about the classroom community and it being a trusting, safe environment.  I almost wish that I had set up that family atmosphere, like Patricia Hilliard.  It sounds cheesy, but I think that a lot of my students are actively looking for family.  They consider their friends their family, and if their classmates are positioned as family too, they might be more motivated to do truly cooperative work.  There are lots of other strategies that I need to learn as well, but it seems to set a good tone for the year to start out this way.

I do think that one of the ways I try to contribute to this cooperative relationship in the classroom is being a real person with my students.  I have book talks with them outside of class instead of during class time so that I have time to ask them more personal questions and just talk with them instead of it being a structured interview.  I have also made sure to chat with my female students picking their children up from daycare.  I try to learn their kids’ names so that they know that I care about their success in the classroom as well as with their many other responsibilities.  I’ve noticed that many teachers don’t really talk to their students when they see them in the hallways, which sets up the teacher like this force who is untouchable outside of the classroom.  Instead, my CT constantly greets current and previous students whenever he walks through the halls, and they come to visit his classroom on a regular basis.  And it seems that this is where the real caring occurs: a good teacher doesn’t just care about his students while they’re in his class.  A good teacher wants his students to move upwards and onwards, and he is there to congratulate them along the way.

Choice Fonts

When I looked at the cover of Johnston’s Choice Words, I’ll admit that I dismissed it a bit just because of the font.  (I’m prone to font-critiquing on occasion.  I feel that it’s an allowable form of snobbery.)  I’m sure that the Curlz font is a product of its time, but I was looking for a book cover with a bit more heft.  So, I was pleasantly surprised when I got a few chapters into the book and realized that really, Johnston is focusing on student agency.  He’s mostly honing in on the words teachers use in order to foster their students’ sense of self and agency in order to guide students to become their most empowered selves within a democratic system.  I’m all in, of course.  The main question that I am left with is how to accomplish this task while being inundated with mandates that tell teachers to remove student agency with preparation for standardized tests.

Johnston points out that some students may be uncomfortable with a sense of agency in the classroom—the students know how school is supposed to be done, and it’s easier to stay in that role of receiver of knowledge rather than constructer of knowledge.  I’ve already seen this some while working on writing a memoir piece with my juniors.  They want really explicit instructions for things to include in their drafts.  While I try to make the strategies that I’m modeling very explicit, I also explain that they might not need to use a specific strategy.  And then the confusion sets in.  “You’re saying that this is required, or it isn’t?”  The interesting part of this question is that I mostly get it from my best students, which makes sense, really—they’ve been the ones who have learned to thrive under a system of rules and regulations.

I was also struck by Johnston’s statement that education is not just about knowledge, but about teaching problem-solving—helping students help themselves.  I think that when we don’t do this, we are essentially creating helpless citizens who can fill in bubbles with an answer that someone else has given them.  But boy, do they fill in those bubbles well.  This method of teaching problem solving seems really difficult, not only because of testing, but also because it takes a lot more planning and patience.  I’m learning that the planning and patience seem all good and well in the summer, but once the mad rush of school starts in August, a lot of that goes out the window (since there’s no room in the classroom for anything else other than the 40 bodies crammed in there).  

So, really, it seems to come back to another part of Johnston’s argument—teaching has to be conscious.  I know that I’m not naturally a person who is constantly encouraging and always on the lookout for opportunities to build student agency; I’m just not wired like that.  But I don’t think that means I’m not naturally a good teacher.  I think it just means that I am the kind of teacher who must be ever reflective in her daily life and activities.