Re: No Exit & Sartre

Pat Bowne <pbowne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > Justin Bacon (<triad3204@xxxxxxx>) wrote:
> >
> >> Public education had long since eradicated my instinct to raise my
> >> hand when I knew the answer. One too many teachers snidely saying,
> >> "Does anyone besides Justin know the answer to this one?" Or politely
> >> asking me after class not to raise my hand so often because it was
> >> intimidating the other children. Public education taught me not to
> >> volunteer; taught me not to participate. And it's a habit I still have
> >> to consciously break from time to time.
>
> Why would being asked not to participate *all* the time make someone decide
> not to participate at all?

If one is of a sensitive nature, one can easily interpret "Let someone
else have a turn" as "I'm sick of hearing from you." Even if not quite
that sensitive, one can wonder, "The teacher says I shouldn't answer too
often, but how am I to know how often is too often? Easier to just not
answer at all." It's hard, being a kid, to figure out exactly what
adults mean.

(Complicating this is that one starts to notice other kids in the class
rolling their eyes or making nasty comments if one is too smart.
Simpler to just disappear.)

> There's only so much you can do with small group work and questions that get
> more complicated for the fast students; at some point, the fast student has
> to take a little responsibility for involving classmates, rather than trying
> to turn the class into a dialogue between herself and the teacher (which I
> admit was always my goal when I was one of those students in my own college
> years). Fortunately my class also grades for social interaction, so I am
> justified in discussing this with them.

Demanding that the student take responsibility -- well, yes, since
you're talking about physiology, they're probably old enough to be able
to manage this; though I'd probably raise the issue in the very first
class and explicitly tell them that you expect for everyone to
participate and for everyone to take responsibility for everyone else to
participate.

But at primary school level it's not so easy for the kids to
understand/remember that, and I think that's the level the thread here's
mostly been about; it's certainly the direction I'm coming from.

And ultimately, it's the teacher's responsibility, either to directly
control the way discourse happens (e.g. explicit turn-taking), or to
teach the kids how they can share the conversation fairly. If you
actually teach them how to do this, that's cool; but if all you say is
"Let someone else have a turn" (and some teachers do) then that's not
enough.

Zeborah
--
Gravity is no joke.
http://www.geocities.com/zeborahnz/
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Have you ever hid your games from overactive kids?
    ... my kids will get taught that stuff at home. ... think that's a parent's responsibility regardless. ... Maybe too many parents these days ARE relying on "the institution" to raise ... Action Pinball & Amusement, LLC ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: The "new" IRA
    ... by scholarships, so who am I to raise these concerns? ... I am concerned that resources are channelled so very unevenly into our kids' education, according to the pockets & religious persuasions of their parents rather than to their needs & talents. ... I think it is all part of our shared responsibility &, as such, that I have a share in that responsibility. ...
    (rec.sport.rowing)
  • Re: Six days to SCHIP
    ... ...From having the means to be able to afford to raise children in any ... I realize I can't stop people from having kids, ... pretty strong community pressure not to tolerate such abuses. ...
    (alt.smokers.cigars)
  • Re: Six days to SCHIP
    ... ....From having the means to be able to afford to raise children in any ... I realize I can't stop people from having kids, ... pretty strong community pressure not to tolerate such abuses. ...
    (alt.smokers.cigars)
  • Re: Six days to SCHIP
    ... before you have have kids, you have to raise ... I want to have kids." ... mandatory reversible sterilization. ... "Privatize the roads tomorrow" ...
    (alt.smokers.cigars)