Double Entry Journal #7

Quote:

Many young people who are disillusioned or cynical about student journalism programs in high school point to their inability to take real responsibility for the choice of message content in the paper. Similarly, plenty of video magazine programs are produced by students who are coerced into making promotional messages for the sports program, the foreign language program, or whatever programs the grownups approve. Such is more or less standard educational fare in our schools.

Of course, such practices occur because to truly empower children and youth with the ability to design the content and form of their own messages would entail tremendous risk to the current educational system. The issues which concern our teenagers today— sexuality, classism and racism, drug use, violence, the environment and the nation's future— are topics that most educators are unprepared to bring into the classroom. Teachers and parents in a community often find the voices of young people very uncomfortable to hear and nearly impossible to respond to. (Hobbs, 2002)

 Response:

This made me think of a quote I ran across while doing research for my PSA:

The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.
James A. Baldwin

I thought about the majority of schools in our education system, and how questioning administrative authority is discouraged. I understand why questioning authority isn't encouraged, but from a critical standpoint, I wonder what teaching opportunities are being lost because students are not being encouraged to question why a certain status quo exists within in their daily lives. For example, I remember quite clearly in high school wondering why we had to call all our teachers Mr. & Ms. My parents had told me that you called someone by this formal title if you wanted to show them respect however, by example, it was only the very oldest and most traditional family friends that we called Mr. or Ms so and so in our household. The only adults that I called by this title were found in my highschool. I definitely respected a few of my teachers, and I didn't want to show disrespect to the ones I didn't respect nearly enough, but I always questioned why this archaic tradition still existed.

In contrast, when I went to college, I was taken aback when my professors preferred to be called by their first names. I remember feeling surprised at how this changed the dynamic of the classroom for better or for worse. For me, it contributed to my sense of independence and ownership over my education that I didn't have before. I continued to question the education I was receiving, but, in contrast to high school, I felt that my professors and I were equal partners in my education. 


Sources:  
Hobbs, R. (2002). Center for media literacy. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-yo-are-you-hip  
 

James A. Baldwin Quote found at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/society_3.html#H6xt1BP0QvGBgug9.99