tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post763085623790012251..comments2024-01-28T03:35:51.182-05:00Comments on Reassigned Time: Bad Gardeners, Bad Mommies, Bad TeachersDr. Crazyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-24784012397261505042010-05-01T10:26:47.190-04:002010-05-01T10:26:47.190-04:00The Freire essay is from his book The Pedagogy of ...The Freire essay is from his book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but if you just google "the banking concept of education" you can find the text online in the first link that comes up.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-14334687239656942422010-05-01T00:43:46.831-04:002010-05-01T00:43:46.831-04:00Hi, I would be interested in reading Freire's ...Hi, I would be interested in reading Freire's article. Do you remember where it is from, or where to find it?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16735417452889482588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-40794319878996237422010-04-13T10:23:39.176-04:002010-04-13T10:23:39.176-04:00we had to do the same exercise in my pedagogy cour...we had to do the same exercise in my pedagogy course and read the same essay re: banking. I remember a friend really liked the image of teacher as herder of cats. <br /><br />I think I went with re-routing a stream. I dig a ditch over here and try to get the water to flow in this direction. It's got a sense of negotiating the power of the class as a whole, but very little sense of the individual. <br /><br />I find I like the idea of herding cats more and more...each one trying to go its own way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-84150876986550044562010-04-13T10:17:59.887-04:002010-04-13T10:17:59.887-04:00Much as I usually hate sports metaphors, I've ...Much as I usually hate sports metaphors, I've always been fond of the teaching-as-coaching model. I can give students information and resources, and I can inspire and motivate. But I can't take the ball and score a touchdown; that's up to them. <br /><br />I also use the coach/personal trainer metaphor when students try to play the "consumer" card. Yes, they've paid their tuition, but that only buys them the opportunity to compete, not a guarantee of winning...Shane in SLChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09009969830290878311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-61767992170810833362010-04-13T09:22:14.544-04:002010-04-13T09:22:14.544-04:00I like conducting, Dame Eleanor.
I was thinking a...I like conducting, Dame Eleanor.<br /><br />I was thinking and came up with building a house. I can provide the lumber, and we can develop a blueprint (or get it, or one of us can do it alone), but the students have to put things together to make them into a house. (Notice how I made an effort to avoid "scaffold"?)Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-68452018275123386922010-04-13T02:30:07.297-04:002010-04-13T02:30:07.297-04:00Not that we did your exercise, but the metaphor I&...Not that we did your exercise, but the metaphor I've used since grad school is conducting. Students are musicians, and I bring their individual contributions into a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.Dame Eleanor Hullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06512884104691200975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-91268796677024083692010-04-13T00:30:31.227-04:002010-04-13T00:30:31.227-04:00This is a great discussion. I love trying to find...This is a great discussion. I love trying to find a metaphor that explains what we think happens in education. I don't have brilliant ideas for metaphors, but there should BE metaphors. Counterpoint? You need two lines, and they are not necessarily going in the same direction!<br /><br />This also connects to my general complaint about our accreditation process, which assumes that students learn what we want them to learn, rather than something else. A student's outcomes for a course may include, but extend beyond, our goals for the course.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-45939824717798632122010-04-12T23:39:30.607-04:002010-04-12T23:39:30.607-04:00I don't know if it's student centered, or ...I don't know if it's student centered, or if it's even a metaphor. More of a description, perhaps. But I've always thought of education as a journey. You have <i>compadres</i> (not always the same ones), people who give you maps, or help push your car when the battery dies, or just add local color. Parts of the journey may be guided, or not. You learn from them all. You learn the most helping others to learn. What you learn depends on, well, on everything. That's how the universe is. All connected.<br /><br />Which means capturing all that in a five-part multiple choice question is a downright Zen koan.quixotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12650030894065858444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-509108686662548962010-04-12T23:06:15.246-04:002010-04-12T23:06:15.246-04:00The assault on tenure (at least at the college lev...The assault on tenure (at least at the college level) has taken a different tact. Now they are just replacing full time staff with adjuncts-especially in the humanities, which face a bleak future. Frank Donoghues' "The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities" sums it up well. The corporatization of higher learning will drastically effect students who will be increasingly dealing with low paid adjuncts, most of whom don't even have office hours. If you've been following this you'll be aware that tenured professorships have been vanishing at a rapid rate for some time now.?https://www.blogger.com/profile/16834812675776638645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-13244925355506404992010-04-12T21:08:16.757-04:002010-04-12T21:08:16.757-04:00Oh, I love that Freire essay, which I also read in...Oh, I love that Freire essay, which I also read in a great graduate school course on pedagogy. We also read an essay on feminist pedagogy, and I believe the metaphor they used was the midwife, that we as teachers are in the classroom to help the students bring out the knowledge and skills that are inside of them, and to help those ideas grow and take shape. It helps me, as a model, to see myself as the person in the room who's interested in the growth and development of the others, not as the "sage on stage," etc. Great post!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13658961567501794718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-45015592579185139922010-04-12T17:02:18.412-04:002010-04-12T17:02:18.412-04:00FYI: after racking my brains to recall the metapho...FYI: after racking my brains to recall the metaphor with which I replaced the garden one, I think I used some sort of a theater metaphor - whether of a play or an improv troup - where it's essential for all of the actors to play their roles and to engage with the other members in order to have the ultimate production.<br /><br />Another one that works would be that of an automobile. The teacher may be the steering wheel, but the students would be the engine, the wheels, all the other parts of the car. While you can't get to the grocery store in a car without a steering wheel, having a steering wheel doesn't mean you have transportation.<br /><br />Or something like that. :)Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-17105664275151400142010-04-12T16:52:40.640-04:002010-04-12T16:52:40.640-04:00Fascinating. I wouldn't expect a grand alterna...Fascinating. I wouldn't expect a grand alternative at this stage, although it would be fun to come up with one.<br /><br />A problem I see with most of the metaphors about teaching, teacher-centred or student-centred, is that they're all subject/object. There's one actor and one passive figure. Whether it's student-centred learning with calls for teachers to provide appropriate materials, tools, models and feedback or the teacher-centred where we water their precious flowery selves (ewww!), either model puts all the action in the hands of one figure. Both, however, can be tilted toward further passivity on the part of the actors (student-centred systems that put the blame on not-good-enough teachers for all failings of the students; teacher-centred ideologies that blame the "bad seed" or "poor soil" or, very occasionally, "the inexperienced gardener").<br /><br />If we embrace student-centred models, we need to understand that students are a key factor in their own education. Did you see the Time article about Roland Fryer Jr.'s studies of student incentives to improve their own performance (18,000 kids involved in the research and it was interesting that just straight money for grades wasn't the best way to inspire improvement)? The article title makes me cringe, though: <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1978589-1,00.html" rel="nofollow">Should kids be bribed to do well in school?</a>.Janicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14093558563358431804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-36983312114908622412010-04-12T16:23:02.039-04:002010-04-12T16:23:02.039-04:00Super-smart, Dr. Crazy, even without a grand alter...Super-smart, Dr. Crazy, even without a grand alternative. One of the big problems we're fighting here is that there IS such a thing as ONE PROGRAM OR SOLUTION FOR ALL FOREVER!!!, right? As you so eloquently point out, teachers are not building ATMs or watering plants, we're dealing with human beings embedded in a particular social/cultura/familial/historical context, so the "standardized parts" of mass education don't suit everyone equally well.<br /><br />Historiann.comHistoriannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10615954696251174822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-23604687910876967092010-04-12T16:00:40.596-04:002010-04-12T16:00:40.596-04:00Freire's brilliant because he makes the imager...Freire's brilliant because he makes the imagery so visible and that helps me question it.<br /><br />And seriously, I was waiting for your grand alternative!<br /><br />I hate the students as widgets coming out of a factory model of education. Bleargh.<br /><br />My mind is too stifled, at least right now, to come up with a student-centered model metaphor, but I'm trying.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-77397148386927275632010-04-12T15:32:44.664-04:002010-04-12T15:32:44.664-04:00Human - I actually teach the Freire essay every ti...Human - I actually teach the Freire essay every time I teach composition to incoming freshmen. It's tough for them to get through, but it works really well not only as a model for argumentative essay-writing but also to start a discussion about what "education" actually is. I've also often used Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire" for similar reasons.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-16282509165576178842010-04-12T15:25:25.062-04:002010-04-12T15:25:25.062-04:00Have you ever tried to talk to undergraduates abou...Have you ever tried to talk to undergraduates about these issues, like during the introduction to a course, perhaps, and explain that they are going to be expected to act like people and not plants or objects? I wonder if engaging the students in this kind of discussion would improve their willingness to participate in and engage with the class.<br /><br />Thanks for a really cool post that made me think lots!humanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09557354324364735817noreply@blogger.com