Peter McLaren: The Critical Pedagogy Reader

The reading this time seemed to me to continue with some of the philosophy of education that was discussed in the previous article, in particular the notion that school is a place where students are to be empowered. This paper was also concerned about the larger concept of society and how school prepares them for that society, including the notion that school can do this in a negative way. Both the writer in the previous reading and this one are concerned that improper education can leave students without the critical thinking skills that they view as vital to an empowered student and human being. Both writers felt that it was in fact the role of good educators to facilitate the empowerment of their students. An idea that was strongly expressed in this reading was that schools pass on culture to students, but they have a responsibility to do so in a way that frees them from oppressive forces within that culture. The best way to free these students is to teach them to be curious, and to always inquire about the status quo, particularly that of the powerful classes or groups in society.

I found the distinction between macro and micro objectives to be fascinating. As a students, I found the macro type of questions to be more interesting, and I suspect that those answers will be far more interesting to read as a teacher, exactly because they are more interesting for students to write. If the kids feel something about what they are writing, which is hard to do through rote memorization of facts, they are more likely to remember it and continue to think about it.

Finally, while we as teachers are taught to try to remain as objective and fair when teaching our students as possible, this paper acknowledges that knowledge passed between people will always have ideological underpinnings, which in the classroom results in hidden curriculum. I found it fascinating that the paper didn't suggest trying to eliminate all of those idealogical underpinnings because it would be impossible, but instead try to understand them and counteract any negative effect they would have.