Are we learning?

Any good student will ask this question - which was posed directly in class: whether we are learning from this class. A problem-posing classroom with students sharing power is a radically different one. It has its own set of challenges that vary significantly from traditional classrooms.

For instance, I could feel that I have no idea what I am learning. There is no test to study for. No explicit set of terms or papers that I must acknowledge currently - though I will have a paper due later this semester. I could come to the conclusion that I may not be learning much or feel completely lost.

However, I could also feel challenged. We each have a different group and project that we are working on. We set the parameters of our project and seek out the resources needed to allow it to manifest. We are also addressing something we care about. So we could see this as quite a bit liberating.

I will be honest in that I feel a bit of both. I like the group I am working in, yet it is not always easy working in groups. We have not completely nailed down everything that we are going to do. So there is a sense of unease about the project. When will it solidify?

At the same time, I have to trust that my group members will follow through with what needs to happen. We need to get our workshop lesson plans in rough draft shape by this Wednesday. That means I need to get my own part completed: I will have something prepared to start the discussion. Further, I will come with plans for the second workshop that is a follow-up and possible political action students can partake in - depending on their interests.

Next spring, I will be facilitating a group of students on their own project. I have been considering the state I have been in during this process and am sure that the students will also be confused at times and excited. There will be moments when we are unsure what direction we are going in and have to return to what are original goals or intention is.

Beyond the projects, I have thought about what bell hooks has to say about a teacher's class and their instructional styles. After reading the chapter, I considered what she had to say about class.

I do think that it is important to consider the societal expectation in a classroom. The banking system style of a quiet and orderly classroom is considered paramount. hooks mentions how important it is to allow all students to have a voice. Yet, at the same time even the students who are of wealthier families should also be valued equally.

It is often a feeling by some to reverse the inequalities in the world completely, thereby giving the most power to those least given it. hooks mentions this perspective, which obviously seems insufficient. You really need to have everyone - all stakeholders - involved if you want to create a real community of learners.

Another thing I considered was my intention in teaching. I believe in social justice but also in connecting what we learn to actual instances in the world. To apply what we read about or discover in the world is something I find quite enjoyable. Too many consider education boring because they believe it is only memorizing facts and figures that have no relation to the real world. This can feel true and even be so if you can't apply it. This is the one failing of our education system today.

Yet, going back to one's intention in starting a career is important. I think we all must remember what reasons we have and those we add on or slightly revise. We can fall astray of our ideals and stick with a profession for different reasons than we thought. Like a lawyer who goes into the business to help the underprivileged yet ends up working on behalf of the wealthy. I certainly would rather catch myself going astray before ending up in such a precarious situation.

The Lower Class and a College Education

Why should poor students not go to college? When you read as much as I do, you likely find stories that connect with former ones you have read. This last week as I perused through the Christian Science Monitor on my Kindle, I found an op-ed that decried how few students were attending college.

What the author primarily wanted to point out was that too few poor students were attending college. There is a  notion of economic mobility for everyone based on their hard work. However, students who are poor feel like they cannot even get into college without taking on burdensome debt. 

What I also found intriguing was that students as early as 5th grade start lamenting about their post-secondary options if they are poor. Their academic performance stalls as a result of this helpless feeling. This tied directly to an article in Ed Week which cited research from Fordham Institute showing that students who start out as elementary high achievers fall by later grades. Poorer  students tend to descend more between grades than any other group. Now add the fact that teacher tend to be paid less to teach minority and poor students. We have a situation that is clearly not going to work for our students or society. 

I was also reading Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery this week. He very much believed a hard work ethic would improve the living standards of African Americans. He did not see the future persecution of Jim Crow manifesting itself. 

Earlier generations lived through the Depression and WWII and enacted the New Deal and the GI Bill. Social safety nets were created while many were able to attend college for the first time. Those who took advantage of a college education were quite successful and supported further government participation in post-secondary education. We now have government-backed loans and Pell grants to help students.

However, the price of college tuition has risen faster than inflation. States are starting to back out of funding them. Parents and working students wages are not keeping up with inflation, especially for those with less education. If things continue, it doesn't seem far-fetched to see populace less educated than it currently is. 

On YouTube, an organization that purports wanting to prepare others for hyperinflation has been advertising an anti-college video. Essentially,they believe that student loan debt will bankrupt future generations. To me, there message is confusing and seems hyped. If we are going to experience hyperinflation, then college would be an excellent investment because your loans will be worth less money if the interest is lower than inflation. With government loans at 6%, I assume this would be a worthwhile risk. Still, I worry too many youth and young adults will see this video and assume college really IS a scam. It's been seen by over 2 million which is pretty high, though much lower than a Lady Gaga video. 

What we need to start doing is making sure that poor students can go to college if they want to. They should be academically and mentally prepared for the task as well, which means throughout their schooling. They say parents of 3rd graders should be talking about college already (sorry, I cannot remember where I heard this - but it does make sense as this is the age many start to consider their future more). As a society, I worry that we are leaving many behind and think we should work to make sure as many of our students can be as successful as they possibly can. 

Communication is key

This is something that should seem obvious. I cannot say I fully understand the third chapter in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but a few things stand out.

For instance, Freire wrote, "It is not our role to speak to the people about our own view of the world, nor attempt to impose that view on them, but rather to dialogue with the people about their view and ours."(96.) This makes sense to me because it says a lot about many who think they know the solutions to problems yet do not ask others their perspective. There can be a huge disconnect between economic and educational elite and the common people.

What I found interesting that overlaps with our Feminist group was that school girls in Chile have been occupying their school for several months. The police have retaken the school several times, yet they consistently take it back as well. The young students persevere because they believe education is a right and that the country should return that right to its people. This is a huge demand, yet their president currently opposes anything but a for-profit and free-market post-secondary school system.

I appreciate the decoding phase that Freire writes about, because it gives us a concrete idea of what we should be doing so that no one is left out of being understood. It's like uncovering a mystery in the cliched mansion where you neglect to interview the staff. At least, that is my understanding of it.

I continued to think more about the importance of communication this last week. It seems so obvious, yet is required if groups of people want to be effective. I did spend a bit of time at the People's Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. One thing that we were continually reminded to do was to talk to each other and discover why we were there. Everyone had different issues and we were meant to discover how these were connected. We may have not thought about or felt a specific issue was important, yet now we knew someone who did and they would tell us why.

I also attended a march where one of the speakers spoke about community in simpler terms. He said communication + unity = community. We cannot be a community if we are not united in our various causes. This presents a challenge to all movements for change,.

Varying Perspectives in our Ever Changing World

I appreciate online media because I can see many different perspectives. Two photos have surfaced that "poke fun" at the hypocrisy of the two newer political factions in our society. The Tea Party is against all taxes while the Occupy Wall Street movement opposes corporate greed.Both groups want systemic change in our society.

While the Tea Party group believes taxes are bad and should be lowered or rescinded altogether, not everyone believes this. Skeptics of their view point out that we have all depended on and still do depend on the government for many services. Those opposed to much of the Tea Party movement point out that government acts in ways that benefit our society yet no single individual would be able to do on their own, such as educating all children in K-12 schools.

While, the Occupy Wall Street movement believes that corporations are not acting in responsible ways, some disagree with them.  This photo was created to point out that occupiers own products created by corporations. Those who oppose the occupiers believe corporations are "job creators." Any conditions placed upon corporations are seen as hindering their ability to create jobs, therefore are the root of our economic downturn.

What unites both groups opposing these populist political movements in the US is that they are realists. Essentially, they point out that "this is how it is and how it will continue to be."As Paulo Freire would put it in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, "The oppressors are the ones who act upon the people to indoctrinate them and adjust them to a reality which must remain untouched"(94.). They paint the illusion of a static world that has never existed - things are always changing.

If the Tea Party were successful in cutting taxes it would mean significant cuts in government spending. Many argue that this dramatically change should already occur as for every $1 in taxes received the US government spends $1.40. The near default on the US government debt this last summer is an example of how serious this group wants to be taken in our political arena. We may see mandatory cuts and a possible Constitutional amendment vote if Congress cannot follow-through with its compromise to resolve that impasse.


If the Occupy Wall Street movement is successful, then we could see corporations being more highly regulated. Their current unlimited spending in politics might be thwarted through a Constitutional amendment. Environmental and labor laws would be strengthened and enforced much greater than they currently are and be applied globally to equalize the economic playing field.
What I appreciate both photos show is that we are all interdependent. However, we must decide what directions we want to take our society. This means delving into issues, researching them, taking sides, and constantly reassessing things while actively pursuing that change. Simply, things are always changing and we should along with them.

As far as my perspective, I have paid attention to both of these movements. Tea Party folks believe they are being oppressed by the government and its high taxes. However, I found this chart from Reuters that counters the argument that taxes are excessively high. Taxes are essentially the lowest in six decades, and through many that are considered great for our nation economically. Oppression in the form of grueling taxes is clearly not something I would consider a problem given this context.

However, the other issue they bring up of having a balanced budget should be addressed. If we are spending 40% more of what we are making in taxes, that is equivalent to about 6% of the economy. That means that without other countries and investors pouring money into our Treasury bonds, we would lose 6% of our GDP in one swipe. We also must pay this borrowing back with interest. Therefore, I do agree with their argument that spending is out of control. The question is, do we raise taxes or make cuts to our spending? The Tea Party movement has ruled out taxes, but the debt to GDP graph clearly shows that taxes have historically been higher.

So why are people in the Tea Party and Wall Street movements so angry about current conditions in society today? Both groups are fed up and angry enough to organize around economic issues. Have wages not been keeping up with inflation?

Looking this date up, I found that median wages have essentially been slightly increasing since the 60s. However, they have not been increasing along with productivity. The biggest graph to likely set off warning bells and perhaps inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement is the one showing wages compared to the top 1%.

When you think about how often people in the US go without necessities like health care, it seems natural to get upset about this inequity. Clearly there are those with the means to help those lacking resources. So far, there is little that has changed these dynamics.

While I think one can ponder these two different movements and what they could mean for our society, it comes back to communication. Do those who are for or against these movements speak the same language? Tea Party folks watch Fox News while Occupiers may not watch TV but listen to MPR and Democracy Now. The media many are choosing to listen to may not always speak to the same issues or use the same words. They have their own unique words and ways of conveying news stories that seem to be diverging just as our political parties are moving further apart. What is just as important as what media we consume is whether we are critical of what we are perceiving in the world.

As Freire writes, "Only dialogue, which requires critical thinking, is also capable of generating critical thinking. Without dialogue there is no communication, and without communication there an be no true education." (92). What both groups need to do is research the situation we are in in society and start discussions about what needs to change. This seems a simple matter, yet it is not something people are particularly good at all the time.

We tend to belong to different sets of beliefs and values long before we delve into them. Some people would rather justify what they already believe rather than challenge them. To challenge yourself on issues and values would mean that you would have to become vulnerable and admit being wrong. The myopia of those who have political discussions has become quite extreme so that some choose not to identify with any group and seek to distance themselves from it.

One occupier who stayed overnight in Minneapolis at the plaza stated: "I'm a schoolteacher. I'm 61 years old, I didn't want people thinking it's just the lunatic fringe progressives doing this or liberals." Beaudet said. "I want them to understand that it's normal people who feel this way and I'm a normal person." Then there are others like presidential candidate Hermain Cain who says the occupiers should get or create jobs if they want to resolve systemic inequities in society and blame themselves for not being able to do so yet. I can surmise from this that the schoolteacher is the one much more apt to question ideology before speaking or taking action.

I certainly feel that problem-posing education would look at issues these groups bring up. We should research to realize the extent of announced problems. Then we should seek to find viable solutions for them. The banking system clearly cannot take up these issues without students pondering more and more questions themselves, that a teacher may not be able or want to answer. However, if we are to be educators of students who are to deal with all the various issues of our world, a problem-posing educational approach would allow students the room to research and discuss much more the things they will be dealing with during their lives.