more of the same

I couldn't help but think about the maniac at V Tech as I read through the mountain of text for this week. It was inescapable as I waded into the part about social skills being part of the New Media Consortium's 21st century literacy, and participatory cultures. Earlier this afternoon, unable to fight off morbid curiosity, I watched the media package he sent to NBC the morning of the shootings--pictures of himself (many of them with guns), short clips of him talking crazy into the camera about random life problems, etc. I heard over the weekend that Nikki Giovanni is a prof at V Tech, and wouldn't allow the psycho into her class. Like those other kids who shot up their schools, this kid had been tormented and picked on all his life. In no way does past bullying justify the massacre of dozens of people, but it got me thinking about how many hurting kids are relying on public schools to teach them how to live and cope and communicate, and how they're falling short.

I was tempted to link Cho's video but didn't, to make a point. I will say that youtube has some interesting video responses, 2 cents, and personal stories to share about V Tech.

"Corporate cultures and their discourses of familiarity are frequently more subtly and more rigorously exclusive than the most nasty - honestly nasty - of hierarchies. Replication of corporate culture demands assimilation to mainstream norms, and this really works only if a person already speaks the language of the mainstream...these new workplace discourses can be taken in two very different ways - as opening new educational and social possibilities, or as new systems of mind control of exploitation...market-directed theories and practices, even though they sound humane, will never authentically include a vision of meaningful success for all students." (New London Group)

Most schools haven't really changed dramatically in a general sense, kids and their situations have. You can't keep teaching the same way for fifty years and expect the same results. I feel like the grading/testing/ranking effects of mass public school hurts us overall, as does the small box it forces everyone into. And I'm not saying that in a "no more teachers, no more books" kinda way, I'm taking into consideration what I've read about authentic assessments versus standardized testing, the psychology of learning, multicultural curriculum, arts-integrated curriculum, the plethora of stupid rules in place, the micromanaging of teachers, etc. I think it's kinda funny in a sad way that the New London Group article claims the most important skill students need to learn is to negotiate regional, ethnic, or class-based dialects, when in real life it seems like learning the white middle-class way to do, say, and think things is really what we're after. For the most part, attempts to validate and even respect other cultures or styles of expression are met with polite tolerance at best and fear/avoidance/persecution at worst.

"Schools regulate access to orders of discourse...the role of pedagogy is to develop an epistemology of pluralism that provides access without people having to erase or leave behind different subjectivities." (NLG) Yet we base nearly everything on a multiple-choice test. I still have nothing but admiration for teachers, but I won't be going back to the classroom myself until there are significant changes and a new administration. I appreciate the changes that some brave teachers and faithful districts are trying, using the new skills of our 21st literacy. But in real life, teachers lose their jobs if they don't do what districts and superintendents tell them to do, even if it's in the best interest of their kids, and it's the same at the administrative level and above. There are future educators who need jobs too. We need a change up at the top, someone who will follow through with what has shown to be successful.