Doench, L. (2014). [Graphic illustration September 28 2015]. Grounded Parents. Retrieved from http://groundedparents.com/2014/04/12/internet-meme-
demolition-derby-childhood-is-not-a-disease/
I have gone through many years of education and was always labelled as the bad student. I was the bad student because I took longer to understand concepts being taught. I was the bad student because I did not contribute a lot as I was shy. In my opinion, the education system has a great distinction between good and bad students. Though I see the education system as making a positive change in letting students grow and learn individually, I am writing this blog with my thoughts before I came to university. Even though I do feel that schools in Ontario are changing for the better, I still believe this issue of “good” and “bad” students should be discussed, as it is an ongoing dispute in other schools. I believe schools overlook the fact that the education system influences student’s behaviours through repetition in the curriculum (MacLure, et al, 2012). The education system has great influence on “good” and “normal” children, through social and institutional ideals, which could cause children to become someone they are not. I feel that these ideas of good and normal children are potentially not normal or natural, causing students who are not receiving teacher’s approval to be “othered” (MacLure, et al, 2012). In elementary school, I was placed into an alternative class with students who were struggling. I have not received a diagnosis for any learning disabilities, but teachers judged me as being below average. From kindergarten to grade 8, teachers tied to put a diagnosis on me because I was not at my grade level. However, teacher never gave me or tested me on any content that was my grade level, so how was I supposed to show them that I was at an average development? Just because I did not learn as fast as other students, I was othered and it had a toll on my high school educational experience as well. The clip below is an example from students of ways in which teachers categories them as good or bad.
Now as
a teacher candidate, I believe it is important for students to develop their
own identities rather than schools building the identities for children. I
question the education system when looking at ideas of “good” students because
unnatural approvals and evaluations become highlighted (MacLure, et al, 2012).
If education is causing students to be less sincere and built unnaturally,
should schools give educational freedom to children? I think that childhood is
not a specific kind as it is produced through many societal conditions as
children are viewed as becoming (Walkerdine, 1993). I question if children can
truly become whom they want to be if the education system marginalizes them based
on approval and assessment? In my eyes, there is some problem with the
education system because it places children in the good or bad category based
on false beliefs. An example of this is teachers giving feedback from
assessments or showing the class evaluation criterion. By giving strict
feedback and evaluation criterion, students are more likely to give less
sincere opinions and feelings (MacLure, et al, 2012). In addition, many
students learn in different ways; by giving strict criterion, teachers are
automatically placing students who lack those strengths into the “bad” student
category. As being a teacher candidate
and seeing this problem in the education system, I will practice student
centred learning in order to allow freedom and individuality to all my students. Rather than discovering children for their individuality, is the
education system a way to corrupt and produce children for society? To find out steps on how to positively correct difficult behaviours, check out the video below.
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The two links below provide you with more information on this idea of "good" and "bad" students.
https://raniblogsaboutcausation.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/good-or-bad-students/
http://www.alternet.org/story/39/school_testing%3A_good_for_textbook_publishers,_bad_for_students
References
and reputation in the early years classroom. British Educational Research Journal.
Walkerdine, V. (1993). Beyond developmentalism? Theory and Psychology.
