Considering the classroom

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." -Aung San Suu Kyi


When I met with Kristy (our classroom instructor), we talked a bit about power. Howard Dean had recently endorsed the message of a terrorist group that I know for a fact is undeserving of any support. I really didn't know what to make of it and consider it to be another corruption of a major political figure. Even now we have political figures like John Boehner, President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf defining those in the Occupy movement as "frustrated." With so many decision makers in our society making carefully calculated statements and support of certain causes, it makes me wonder who are allies against the oppressors and who would simply join them for the right price. 

This concerns me as well because educators have a great deal of power in the classroom. While I want to have a democratic and intellectual classrooms, this ideal is hard to achieve. I worry that I will succumb to attaining too much power or abuse it in the classroom. Will I be too worried about my career to have serious political discussion in the classroom that parents or administration may not approve of? This also includes challenging the banking system model that has long been a part of our educational system.

hooks brings up the issue of power in the classroom when stating in Teaching to Transgress, "Fear of losing control in the classroom often leads individual professors to fall into a conventional teaching pattern wherein power is used destructively." This closely relates to the statements of Aung San Suu Kyi who also says those in power can fall prey to fear and thereby become corrupt. Anyone with some amount of power should be extremely wary of this dynamic.

When I first started my classes at MCTC I knew that the old system did not appeal to me. When discussing which philosophy of education I liked the most, it was Existentialist and Social Reconstructionist. This is because I see information that we receive in schools as something that should be questioned and challenged. I also feel that students have their own interests and should have more say as to what they are learning. There also needs to be more of an academic feel to classrooms - to also include a more social aspect. 

There are have been few classrooms I have been in like Kristy's where students get to know each other pretty well. They have been the ones where teachers strive to learn students names - and also expect us to learn each others'.  Too many have made me feel like an anonymous student who simply morphs into the collective class and never was able to show much of who I am. This can be comforting because you then only worry about your own work being shown to the instructor - rather than also to your fellow peers who you've made friends with. Also, what if students don't want to open up to a classroom of others and would prefer to be less social or  not be interested enough in the material to want to think about it more critically. 

These are things I have thought about not just while in class, but also while working on our group project. I have been pondering the political and historical workshop that I am working on. It is by no means perfect or even good in its current draft form. Still, I have thought about where the students' voice can be and how it could influence the direction of the workshop and the conversation. It means I must have a strong knowledge of the subject matter and be flexible enough to take a different avenue if student interest and passion is taking me there. 

Still, if there does not seem to be direction, I can redirect things towards what I want to bring up and can still very well do so. Does that mean that I am still working under the banking style system of inserting my perspective and what I consider to be important? I couldn't argue that I am not, because I have pre-determined subject matter. Students could have a different perspective on it than what I have - for instance they may disagree with the notion of feminist "waves" or disagree that the ERA is a worthwhile Constitutional amendment. I cannot assume that my students will ever be less knowledgeable about a subject than I am. 

As an educator, I also expect that many of my students will be far brighter and more intellectual than myself. They will outdo anything I could have done at their age or even now, depending upon which form of intelligence we are considering. How do I transmit information to students and receive information from them regarding their understanding and implementation of it in different ways? This is something I haven't completely figured out yet and is lacking in my workshop. There are some social discussions and I will try to visually show them - but it is still essentially a lecture with discussions. However, if this were the start of a praxis group to take on oppression against gender-based problems in our society, it wouldn't be an awful place to start either. 

So, this is where I am currently this week: considering the  classroom and what it means to be an educator at this time and in this part of the world. I imagine that it will be something I will ponder for quite a while.