I absolutely loved Ellsworth's description of students' as possessing a "raw and unruly self" that is essential to their learning. Many of my students' raw and unruly side is their very public face. But why is this nature so essential to learning?
Curricula are normative tools. They are created out of either autocratic, democratic or consensus based decision making processes. Whatever the process, the key players in the process of deciding what things are most important for students to learns, come more or less from the mainstream of society. The documents they create necessarily reflect their understanding of the what is normally valuable or important. The raw, unruly selves of our students, those spaces between what they are supposed to be and what they have not become, expose the norm as being a creation. Like Mcluhan's tools, curricula are extensions of the values and beliefs of those in power. Thus they will necessarily leave out the reality of those outside of the norm. Whether our students come from mono-cultural, upwardly mobile suburbs or from the cultural mosaic impoverished inner city, simply by virtue of their status as youth they do not fully exist within the boundaries of the norm.
Ellsworth points out that the raw and unruly non-normative selves of our students are essential for learning. This is because they make clear that there is potential for new ways of looking at the world. The problem is that curricula carries with it the power to deem what ways of looking are acceptable and what ways of looking are abnormal. The reality of our students, if not completely foreclosed upon by their education, holds the potential to expand the idea of normal to be more inclusive, more accepting of difference or to explode the concept of a norm completely. But the cost to the student is exorbitant!
There must be another way. There must be a way that allows for schools to accommodate and welcome difference while recognizing the fact that our society isn't all that accepting of divergence. Why can't schools foster the unruly and raw so that our society becomes more plural? I have no problem telling my students about the rules written and unwritten that govern our society and then challenging them to critique them. I'm sure many other teachers do the same. But do we have to follow our invitation up with, "it would be better for you not to rock to boat, not to challenge the status quo"? As it stands the regime of standards exams, graduation requirements and curricular courses of study make it hard not to. But I for one want a more raw and far more unruly world. This cooked and ruled one is not living up to its promise.
Ellsworth points out that the raw and unruly non-normative selves of our students are essential for learning. This is because they make clear that there is potential for new ways of looking at the world. The problem is that curricula carries with it the power to deem what ways of looking are acceptable and what ways of looking are abnormal. The reality of our students, if not completely foreclosed upon by their education, holds the potential to expand the idea of normal to be more inclusive, more accepting of difference or to explode the concept of a norm completely. But the cost to the student is exorbitant!
There must be another way. There must be a way that allows for schools to accommodate and welcome difference while recognizing the fact that our society isn't all that accepting of divergence. Why can't schools foster the unruly and raw so that our society becomes more plural? I have no problem telling my students about the rules written and unwritten that govern our society and then challenging them to critique them. I'm sure many other teachers do the same. But do we have to follow our invitation up with, "it would be better for you not to rock to boat, not to challenge the status quo"? As it stands the regime of standards exams, graduation requirements and curricular courses of study make it hard not to. But I for one want a more raw and far more unruly world. This cooked and ruled one is not living up to its promise.
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