So, as far as this chapter goes, I'm still having some tension with it, but I liked this one a bit more.
Like the authors, I appreciated that the boys see reading a good tool for the future and that it will get them to their goals. I think it is an even better sign that they made up reasons for the fake characters to stay in school and get educations. I guess my struggle comes with the fact that the authors want the boys to see reading as something immediately rewarding. Ideally, I agree that the boys should see reading as an immediately pleasurable task, but it can be hard for teachers to change a student's stance so immediately. Couldn't it be okay for teachers to demonstrate for students how reading can help them with their future goals of becoming a rapper, or artist, or whatever? After we get them to buy into this fact, then I understand that it is important to get them to see that reading can be immediately rewarding, but I just think that it's so common that we forget to meet students where they are.
Another tension I feel here is the fact that in the first chapter, the authors state that "boys are more inclined to read informational texts" (p.11). If this is the case, wouldn't that attribute for the fact that boys see reading and school as a means to an end? Perhaps this is simply the way that they look at the world. They must wonder how it can benefit them. This makes sense if they are concerned with looking good in front of their peers.
One point that I liked was the way the boys made a differentiation between what can be learned in books versus what can be learned in a social context. This is a barrier that I really hadn't considered before, but I can see how that would influence the way the boys act in the classroom. I wonder why they think this is particularly a male phenomenon? In many ways, I think I felt that way up until I started my MA program. I mean, I always liked learning, but I didn't always feel that the knowledge would help me much in the real world (except to get a job). Once I started my MA, I had a new purpose for reading. I saw this connection between academia and my future "real-world" experiences. Perhaps, getting them to see how the readings connect to their experiences would help them.
On a final note, I was SO SO happy that they finally gave us an example of a teacher who tried to engage the boys in his class more. Like Keira, I was a little disappointed in how small the changes were, but this reflects a real classroom in my opinion. Teachers will not be able to change a whole curriculum to engage half the class, so the changes that are made will have to be adjustments, rather than whole-curriculum changes. I wondered if this would be an applicable project in a university classroom because at the end, the students do a video assignment, but I feel like university teachers would have more constraints on the final projects, and that they would most likely have to relate to reading.
Hi Chloe--Ok, I'm excited to get this discussion going! Let's do it!
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind if I start by taking issue with something you say in this post. I have to say that I really *don't* agree that it could "be okay for teachers to demonstrate for students how reading can help them with their future goals of becoming a rapper, or artist, or whatever?" The boys are already parroting the idea that reading is key to future success. There are two things wrong with continuing to drum this line into young students: 1) It accords only with the view of education as preparation for the future rather than as the healthy work of the present (I'd like to hear your response to the material on Dewey from this chapter, btw); 2) It is, to a significant extent, in this time and place, a LIE. Yes, it's a lie. It's an especially big fat lie if teachers pander to pipe dreams like "I'm going to be a rap super star!" What are the odds? Seriously. I'm a lot more worried about the 99.99999% of boys who entertain such dreams and then "fail" and end up doing other things in life than I am about the tiny number who "succeed" and find their literacy very handy for reading contracts. Let me be clear that I don't think there's anything wrong with a young boy dreaming of being a rap star, and I would not put effort into actively disillusioning him. I *would* put effort into helping him access rich aesthetic experience that will be available to him throughout life *regardless* of success or failure in "the music industry." *That's* what English class can and should do.
I just want to clarify here that I think a big part of what Smith and Wilhelm are trying to say (and I'm persuaded) is that the boys who dream of being rap stars DO certainly already have access to aesthetic experience, but that currently English class is doing almost nothing to build on/ develop/ expand that. If English class *doesn't* do any kind of aesthetic education, then what is it? A place where propaganda is perpetuated? A place to learn to read text books? (W/r/t the last point, I actually feel fine about teaching "service" courses some of the time, but that's certainly not *all* I think English can do).
ReplyDeleteHi Chloe, great post! So thoughtful! I am going to post on Chapter 2 and 3 concurrently tonight (sorry guys, it was an unexpectedly busy week). For now, though, I think that I would like to address Keira's comments--especially the first comment. Actually, rather than fully address the comment, I think I would like more to simply address the fact that I would like to address it and maybe we can get into more in-depth conversation tomorrow in class. But for now I will just say that I think that just as much as it is a lie to students to pander to "rap star" dreams, it is also a lie to ourselves as teachers to pander to our own dreams of all of our students becoming something or someone significant or being able to successfully help all (or maybe even most) students to access rich aesthetics experiences that will be available (or even memorable) or him/them throughout their lives. It's not an unworthy dream. Just like being a rapper is not an unworthy dream. But it is a façade that, just like pandering rap super star dreams to students, will most likely not be successful. If the response to this comment is, "but we need that hope--that dream" than my response is, then, how is than fundamentally different than teachers encouraging students to do whatever it is that they like or want to--to use our class to whatever end they see fit in their own lives? I think as a follow-up question I would have to ask, who, truly, is the teacher that is "pandering to pipe dreams"? Is that really what they are doing? I don't think that's what Chloe's comment meant or would condone--that would be the very far end of encouragement. If you don't believe there is anything wrong with a young boy dreaming of being a rap star, why shouldn't a teacher encourage student dreams--whatever that may be? To encourage one student's dream to become a teacher and not the others' to become a rap star would be to judge and place value on something that is personal and subjective. Why is that a "pipe" dream anyways? Isn't that an opinion? I think that all of these questions are valid and worth weighing in the English classroom.
ReplyDeleteActually, Sarah, your comment is quite helpful to me; I think it will help me clarify something important. I am not terribly functional in the late evening, so this will be just a partial response and we can discuss tomorrow. Anyway, I think that part of what I was trying to get at was that a version of English class that comes from a conception of school-as-the-healthy-work-of-the-present would actually be MORE beneficial even to the rare boy who succeeds as a rap star--more beneficial, I mean, than an English class that comes out of a conception of school-as-preparation-for-the-future. That same class would ALSO be more beneficial to the many aspiring rap stars who fail.
ReplyDeleteMore tomorrow. Looking forward to it.