Talking about issues that matter
Golden lines:
"I try to find a place of mutual understanding, to give others the benefit of the doubt, and to attempt to see an experience from the other’s perspective". - Dr. Steven Becton
"...they have these ideas and they have these fresh perspectives, but what they don't necessarily have is the academic language and vocabulary that goes with it". - Jenna Forton
In this blog post, I will be discussing both of the golden lines above. While thinking about this topic, I even find myself feeling scared of talking about the things that matter. For some reason in our classrooms and even in our personal lives, we have made it extra difficult to talk about controversial topics. Naturally, people have very different opinions, and when someone has an opinion about something they are not prone to changing their minds or seeing the way that other people are thinking. The first quote listed above really stuck out to me for multiple reasons. I really liked how Dr. Becton said he goes out of his way to see others' experiences which I think is key to talking about issues that matter. Even though you might think one way about something it is important to understand that not everyone thinks the same way you do, something may have happened in their lives to make them think one way, and that needs to be respected especially in the classroom. Going along with this way of thinking, the second quote fits in perfectly. Some students are afraid to voice their opinions for many reasons but I had never thought of it the way that Mrs. Forton said it. Along with their experiences and opinions, students may not know how to voice what they have to say. Giving students the opportunity to hear others speak on a topic before they speak on it can give them an example of how to voice what they have to say. Everyone has a perspective that we may have never thought about, and that is why it is important to make a space in which students can express these perspectives. While there is no "perfect space" in which we can express our views on important issues, we can make it to where our students feel comfortable with making their voices heard.
These were two phenomenal quotes that really added emphasize to your point. Students, especially younger ones, most likely have never been exposed to some truths, or even how to approach those truths, so your thoughts and ideas on how to bring that aspect into the classroom is great!
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ReplyDeleteThese quotes defiantly hit the nail right on the head when getting your point across. It is very true that some students do not want to speak up when talking about harder topics because of how their peers might react to them if they do not agree with what is being said. As a educator is important that we make sure that our students feel comfortable when speaking on things no matter what. Like Dr. Becton said it is important to understand others experiences because then it will help you as a person to learn more about the things that are going to be talked about and to be more aware of things and how others have been affected by certain things versus yourself. I agree with you that everyone has a perspective of how they are thinking of the topic and it is important to for all the students to know that their perspective matters and for them to feel comfortable in the classroom when sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for taking the time to reply, and yes! I even found myself doing this when talking about issues in the classroom, I always had these ideas I wanted to share but I never felt like I could word them the right way so I just kept them to myself. As educators, we need to prepare our students for these conversations!
DeleteThe fact that even us as teachers tend to feel scared to talk about the things that matter shows that we haven't been talking about them enough ourselves. In order to destigmatize these conversations and foster an environment where people feel like they can share their perspective it takes practice. In addition to your post, I'd like to emphasize that children need to be exposed to these topics early on, so that they don't feel as out of place when they arise in the future. We can start to teach them the rules of discourse as early as kindergarten, such as taking turns to speak and waiting until someone else is finished sharing before commenting. If we continue to wait until children are "age appropriate" to engage in these discussions, it makes it harder to break out of that comfort zone and speak up whenever those topics arise. That isn't to say we should be teaching them about every fine detail of violence and discrimination, but at the very least they should be recognizing differences they have with their peers, and learning to take in to consideration the struggles individuals face because of these differences.
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