Made me go Hmmm.

[swestrup]

Thanks to rezendi, here's an article about a bunch of teachers banning legos, and the reasons behind it. I mostly agree with what the teachers did, but I find I'm uncomfortable with the whole process. I think this is largely because, as much as they tried to remove one set of biases in their teaching, they inevitably instilled others. I suspect that this is inevitable though.

Comments

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

But now the children hae two mental models to work with, and mey even realize that there is a choice. They may even be open to the possibility that rules can be made to achieve purposes.

[swestrup]

Exactly. It why I approve of the process, if not necessarily of the teacher's reasoning behind it.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

What an utterly disgusting exercise.

We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity — whether we interceded or not. We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children's understandings from a perspective of social justice.

"We wanted to impose our own extremist left-wing thinking on these defenseless children, and agreed among ourselves to indoctrinate them with it. This nonsense about children being 'political beings' is our transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable in case anyone objects to this obvious betrayal of our duties as educators."

"I stopped trading because the same people were winning. I just gave up."

What a wonderful less to teach children. "Hard work doesn't actually count for anything, so instead you should give up and complain about how unfair the system is".

Those teachers should be fired.

[swestrup]

> Those teachers should be fired.

Nah, EVERY teacher does that. Every teacher colors their teaching with their own political/moral/philosophical agendas. Its almost impossible to do otherwise when you are teaching something.

I heartily approve of them teaching kids to ask when authority needs to be questioned, and when the rules need to be changed. These are questions far too few adults ever learn to ask.

On the other hand, I would have liked it had they been able to give a far more balanced sociopolitical view on things. Heck, I'm an extremist left-wing liberal and I didn't agree with their stands on some things.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Every teacher colors their teaching with their own political/moral/philosophical agendas. Its almost impossible to do otherwise when you are teaching something.

That's highly debatable. And in any case it is NOT an excuse, no matter how much left-wing extremists try to use it as one.

There's a huge difference between unconsciously imparting something of your own views into the teaching of certain subjects, and deliberately attempting to brainwash/indoctrinate young children with your own dogmatic political agenda. This is clearly a case of the latter, and it sickens me.

I heartily approve of them teaching kids to ask when authority needs to be questioned, and when the rules need to be changed. These are questions far too few adults ever learn to ask.

Hah! If any of the children questioned the authority of their teachers, how long do you think that lasted?

I completely reject the idea that these people have an appropriate view of 'when authority needs to be questioned' or 'when the rules need to be changed'. They obviously have their own agenda, and I have to wonder whether the parents realize that their children are being subjected to this kind of insidious propaganda. The whole business is despicable.