I Won't Learn from You

Below are my annotations from the article I Won't Learn from You-by Herbert Kohl (can be read here)

Questions:

I can see why the author did not want to learn Yiddish, however why his mother did not attempt to learn with him?

In the story of Akmir, why was the author only trying to see text through the ideology of Akmir and not push for Akmir to view the text from the authors view? If your priority or goal is to find racism or sexism in text you will find something that you can skew to justify your point.

Reactions:

Early in the reading the author speaks of coming up with strategies that will help students avoid old errors, learn free of failure. I agree with helping students see their errors so that they do not repeat them, however if students only think in aspects of not failing then they may not take risks that may result in failure or success.

Connections:

My family moved to Arizona from Ohio before I was born so I attributed my parents not teaching us Spanish (I am half Spanish) to the fact that we did not have family here that would require me to. Now years later my Uncle on my mother’s side explained to me that their father (my grandfather) was a strong advocate for “Americanizing” his family. Therefore, none of his children were exposed to the language of their culture. What I thought was my mother’s desire to not teach me was actually attributed to her inability to teach me.

Restatements:

The author speaks on “not-learning”, be that a language, racism, sexism, etc. and by challenging the “authority” you will be considered a discipline problem with consequences. Now this may be true if your challenge of authority is misplaced, meaning you disrupt the class unnecessarily and rudely. As I see it if you refuse to learn a subject or object to the context it is delivered you have the right to your opinion and can share it, but you need to show respect if you want to be given respect for your view point.

Applications:

In a history course I can assume that at some point I might have a student that has a not-learning approach to certain topics in American history. My strategy to handle this situation is to have my student acknowledge that we are learning about our history and it cannot be changed for it has already happened. HOWEVER, if the resistance is appropriate I would talk with my student to find out what their resistance is towards and if they still see that “issue” prevalent in our society today. If they explain that they are resistant to the topic because it has not truly changed I would help them understand that instead of ignoring it in class that they have avenues they can take and become proactive on the issue in their community.