Literacy With an Attitude

Essay by TerraDawn April 2007

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As an education student and preschool teacher I can relate to Finn's judging of professor John Carter. Like Finn I too find myself questioning how I can dictate what I learn to my students now as well as the students I will have in the future. Although Finn states "they threw out anything a little too aesthetic." I like to look at it from a different angle and ask how can I benefit and how my students can benefit?For example, in my required drama class we read plays that I can barely understand, and have to know all about sonnets and playwrights. I sometimes find myself wondering how this is going to help me be better educator. Why in the world would I want to go through this again with students? Then I always seem to find reasoning. I can see how difficult it is for me and if I had a better instructor to teach it to me and help me understand instead of blowing questions off as if they are unimportant I can learn.

Therefore, some of the experiences I have as a student reflect on how I transform from student to educator.

Experiences throughout my school years, particularly elementary school I have encountered teachers described by Jean Anyon regarding her observations. I attended a middleclass school and many of my teachers only believed by teaching by the book. Their rule was golden, and if it wasn't their answer then you were wrong. There wasn't any room for opinions on closely related answers. It was simply right or wrong, black or white without a grey area. Sitting up straight, not talking, and keeping your eyes on the board are very selfish rules in my opinion, and unfortunately those are the rules I had to encounter as a child.