Classroom approaches to better reach intellectual freedom
After reading the text Claiming an Education by Adrienne Rich I came across a quote that reminded me of certain goals I had in a previous class. This spring I took POSC 323 which was focused around field experience within a younger classroom. Our goal was to teach these children a certain civic lesson they could use in their daily lives. The quote from the reading says “Too often, all of us fail to teach the most important thing, which is that clear thinking, active discussion, and excellent writing are all necessary for intellectual freedom. Sometimes, perhaps in discouragement, we may resign ourselves to low expectations for our students.” This struck me in a way that instantly thought about why and how we can change this within a classroom environment. Going over my plan on how to best engage students I wanted to rewrite it, revise it in a way that I thought would best immerse the younger minds to listen and act on what is being taught to them. This post will overlook my own thoughts on how in a classroom environment we can best instill knowledge to these youthful students in a way where they can strive for more intellectual freedom.
In order to teach children in an efficient manner, I think you have to be direct but also earn their respect and never discriminate against their thought processes. I think the first thing we have to realize is that all children do not learn the same way. Some kids learn by visuals, some learn better by crafting something and others learn more productively by reading/writing. Knowing this we would have to conduct different activities that encompass all different styles of learning. A young child especially will not be invested if they do not understand what is going on. We can also omit conflict by offering choices to the children. Giving them multiple options for tasks with the same teachings at certain points during our lesson will allow them to choose what way they would like to learn. This will cut down on disputes in the classroom and could make the lesson go more smoothly. On top of this, you have to earn a kid’s respect sometimes for them to listen to you.
I remember one of my students during my JEP experience during my first semester at USC when I asked him to do something and he told me “Why do I have to listen to you, I don’t even know who you are.” I immediately learned and adapted quickly to that statement. I acquired the knowledge that some children especially at a young age want to feel comfortable around people before they open up. The next couple of weeks following that engagement I tried to exploit this particular child’s mind more and it worked. Although he would only answer to me and on one else in my group, it still showed the fact that he came out of his shell and was ready to participate in our lessons. I think this a major tool we can use in order to get the most out of our students. This also falls into the last tactic of respecting all children’s opinions. We need to practice patience when it comes to the answers these children give us. Even if they are completely off what we are looking for instead of telling them “No” we need to steer the discussion in another way to where they can understand it. We can do this by asking them the same question in a different way or flipping the conversation into something relevant to them where they will comprehend the information in a better way for them.
The question becomes how does our group most effectively educate them on certain morals we are trying to teach? One of our classmates in that class expressed that she thought the best way would be to “Offer the children an incentive so they pay attention.” Although I think this can be effective I do not think it is the best way to grasp their attention. Even though giving incentives for the children might give them some insight to pay attention it will also be cemented into their brains that no matter what happens they will get a reward. I know based on previous fieldwork experience that this will trigger some children to goof off because they know a reward will be obtained in the end either way. I think the best way to go about the incentive route would be to give the kids a game or task that results in some sort of competition. We will tell them that the winning team will get a reward so they put their best effort forward. Although in the end, we will give all of them the reward. I think this will best teach them the lesson while having them put their best effort forward.
Younger generations within the LA community that might need to be groomed more are those that come from lower-income areas. Areas that might have more discrimination than most. Where most would have lower expectations for the students. We need to make positive interventions by offering alternatives to gangs and violence. By building their capacity to reach their full potential and equip them with the tools to better their community. In my mind, we want to do things like to develop civic discourse by having the youth argue against our recommendations if they disagree. Teach through the Socratic method and have people hear the other side. We want people to disagree so they can make up their own minds and to create an informal conversation and have it spread to others. Starting children at a young age is more comfortable to talk about how they really feel will lead to more involvement in their own communities for the future. By promoting different opinions in our classroom it could teach kids more than they think. Listening to the thoughts of others could result in them strengthening their own arguments due to them finding loopholes. Learning how to debate a topic and back up their point will give children more confidence to speak in front of people, it builds self-esteem. It also builds their critical listening skills, their ability to respond to what other people say back to them, and how to structure a lot of information into talking about key points. These are some ideas to promote what the author of the text of Claiming an Education says society is failing to do in order to reach intellectual freedom. I think teaching and applying these things to the younger generations can be used as a good platform to only enhance certain but necessary skills for the future. Instead of having low expectations for students, we need to practice these techniques in order to make them feel heard.
