Originally, I planned to read, "Who Owns The Learning" for my choice book but after I watched Seth Godin's Ted talk on his book Stop Stealing Dreams, I got inspired to read the book. The full name of Godins Book is Stop Stealing Dreams: What is school for? This titled really made me stop and think for a moment about the question, "What is school for?" In my opinion, school is for educating students in areas they need to be informed about in order to function successfully in society. However, I think my answer is probably far different from Seth Godins. On that note I dived in and started reading the book. In the book Godin argues that during the Industrial age, educators were told to teach children to be obedient. They taught obedience by forcing children to sit in straight rows and follow rules. The purpose of this was that obedient children lead to more productive and compliant factory workers. Godin argues that today children are not forced to work in factories anymore so why are we still enforcing the obedience in the classroom. I agree with to Godin to some extent. I think straight rows and absolute silence is not always necessary but I think rules must be enforced in the classroom so that the classroom has structure, students don't get out of hand, and the classroom maintains an environment for learning. Rules are a part of life. They are every where. There are rules about flying, driving, parking, etc. These rules are part of US law. Children must be exposed to following rules at an early age to prepare for the future and following laws. In section 5 of Godins Manifesto, he indirectly argues that teachers are training students be the characteristics in column B (obedient) and teachers are not the training to be the characteristics in column A (Aware, Caring Committed, Creative, Goalsetting, Honest, Improvising,Incisive,Independent, Informed, Initiating, Innovating, Insightful, Leading, Strategic, Supportive). I beg to differ here. I think that is a very big generalization he is making. I have a couple classroom experiences now and the teachers I have worked with were always trying to enforce and instill the qualities in Column A in the students. Thats not to say that I haven't seen these teachers also try to enforce obedience in their classrooms because I feel that that was very much present too. I think both the characteristics in both column are taught and reinforced in school. In section 11, Godin argues that schools try to amplify fear into students. I definitely could see his point here. I think that very often teachers uses fear or threats as a way to get students to behave or comply. For example, while student teaching I heard my master teacher say to students frequently, "If you do that again, I am going to turn your behavior card". This serves as a threat and in turn students develop a fear of misbehaving again. This approach is definitely still apparent in classrooms.
Hi Melissa,
This book sounds extremely interesting and also a little extreme. I completely agree with you on the need for obedience in the classrooms. I cannot imagine my kindergarten classroom without rules. I understand where he is coming from and that some teachers put a lot of emphasis on perfect structure, but there is some need for this structure. Also, I definitely do think that teachers are still trying to instill fear in the students. We have the clip system in the classroom and this serves that same purpose. I think for the most part this creates embarrassment and fear for the students. This book seems like an interesting read. Looking forward to hearing more about it!