Reading these two articles reminded me of a conversation i had woth a family friend who is a librarian in the DOE and her son who has observed this topic through personal observations and ddis ussoons with his mother. We were duscussing my plans to teach, his plans to design programs for biochemistry company's and somehow stumbled onto the topic of the absence of writing fundamentals. He stated in order to have a better mastery of coding and the various language programs, one needed to have strong reading and writing skills. " You have to know the rules so you know how to break them" was an old saying that came to mind, especially in relation to the shorthand used in coding programs. That idea is exactly what the first reading "Programs in Writing Across the Curriculum" also states, "writing is vital to most subjects".
The second reading elaborated further on the topic giving me a better understanding and elaborated more on one of the major focuses of the Common Core which promotes "writing to learn". It highlights an association that it expands on and then clarifies whereas writing is a good source of input and not solely output, an assessment or even punishment. It pushes the idea of having students write as much as they can to promote reading and also learning. One interesting point it mention reminded me of the topic from last weeks discussion and reding in relation to language, discourse and the dominant cultural model. Often adults will dismiss children's scribbles as meaningless and nonsensical because they don't understand it. This reminded me of how the Europeans may have viewed the Native Americans when they first colonized dismissing the relevance of their language, culture and values.
I like the connection you made about how dominant cultures or groups dismiss the expressions of weaker groups.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is a common behavior among adults who dismiss the writing or drawing of children. This is a potentially harmful behavior in a classroom setting. If an adult in charge does not show value or understanding of a child's expression they risk hurting the child's self esteem or turning them off to learning and school. Could this attitude of adults be a factor in behavior problems and growing school drop-outs?
In addition to this model we have seen this behavior in other areas throughout history. For example as you mentioned this attitude was practically a philosophy of European conquest of the Americas. How different would Pan-American culture be today if the colonizers had more value and understanding for the indigenous populations?