Saturday, January 31, 2009
Anti-Opressive Education
This was an interesting article to say the least. The author poses an arguement and supports it but I don't think I necessarily agree to all of what he says. Kumashiro makes the argument that schools are "harmful spaces". I think that schools can be great spaces for building social relations, learning, playing sports, tons of things. They can be harmful of course but I don't think the author should have dramaticized it so much. Also, he suggests that there should be separate spaces for students who are the other. This sounds riddiculous to me. I imagine he meant separate classrooms with teachers who are willing to help students if they feel out of place, that theyve been bullied or anything like that. To me, this would just further the separation between these 'other kids' and everyone else. They should feel integrated in the school community, not that they need a separate place to brew in their depression. How to do that, I dont know.
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I like you post as it follows closely to what I wrote in mine this afternoon. One comment though... I don't think Kumashiro was suggesting that "other" students SHOULD be seperated from the rest of the student body, but is only suggesting that the "others" simply have somewhere safe to go if they need help, someone to talk to, some distance, etc... But, if he actually IS suggesting this seperation, and I misread and misunderstood what he was saying, then I must agree with you 100%. To physically seperate the "other" kids from the rest of the student body would not solve any problems at all and would only cause more (in my opinion).
ReplyDeleteOh, I should probably clarify... I meant like a separate classroom that during the day the students could go to if they felt a certain way. Not entire classrooms with only students considered "others".. sorry!
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