“A different way to learn is what the kids are calling for….All of them are talking about how our one-size-fits-all delivery system----which mandates that everyone learn the same thing at the same time, no matter what their individual needs---has failed them”- Seymour Sarason in The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform.
As teachers we are often faced with the reluctance of some learners to read and write. A major reason why students are quick to say “this is stupid” or “cant I just get a worksheet?” is because they either feel embarrassed to say I can’t read or write and or because they have less confidence in their abilities. True educators provide differentiated learning experience to maximize success. Ladson-Billings’ presents the readers with critiques of schooling presented in the above quote. Many educators in our school system are mere robots of traditional practices and underestimate the youth of today without considering other means to help them learn. Educators’ responses to their student’s language and attitude are detrimental in providing a window for failure because you can “lower expectations of their abilities”. The above quote critiques schooling in that it does not acknowledge how all children from various backgrounds have various levels of needs and are not provided with the same “equity” opportunities as others. This approach to teaching has tremendous impacts because their “academic achievement represents intellectual growth and the ability to produce knowledge”. If there is no room for growth and success the student begins to lose confidence and enthusiasm in learning. Learning is supposed to be fun for the students. I begin to think about a foreign student learning from a text unfamiliar to his native eye. How do you expect him to gain knowledge and critically analyze the text without offering some sort of mediation and or knowing his experience with the text? The mediation requires putting his roots into perspective and somehow integrating it with the curricula in addition to providing him with opportunities of choice. What is happening is that, many educators chose to give worksheet practices which is “the easy way out”. In fact they should have students learn a foreign text by having the students engaged, enthusiastic, and having the opportunity to apply what they learned to real world situations. Lisa Delpit, in her book The Skin that We Speak, offers us three propositions to the success teaching:
Successful teaching focuses on students’ academic achievement [‘intellectual growth and the ability to produce knowledge’],
Successful teaching supports students’ cultural competence [students grow in understanding and respect for their culture of origin] and
Successful teaching promotes students’ socio-political consciousness [‘develop a sense of mutuality and reciprocity toward others’] (110-111).
As stated before, literacy practices in schools lack to educate the youth in a way that is meaningful and comprehensible to them. True educators, find ways to have the students who “hate reading and writing” by having them “use reading and writing for real purposes” in ways that create works that have authenticity in of their voice. Not giving the students the chance to try allows them to fail which is why we must request from all out students “high levels of academic achievement” (119).
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