Middle School and Changes

From what I can remember, Middle School was definately a weird and awkward time for everyone I knew. After reading Chapter 2 I have learned more in depth of the pubertal changes occuring at this time. It is mentioned throughout the chapter that often these changes are embarrassing and often ignored by parents. If more education was put in place to explain these changes before and while they are happening and made students more comfortable with these changes, would it be such an awkward time? I think it is an important issue that needs to be addressed because it has been shown that after these changes is when issues such as eating disorders and anger problems can begin and can continue on. This chapter has made me realize most that it is important for educators to understand what the student is going through at this age and may help explain some of their actions. I think it is partly the responsibility of the schools to make sure that these changes that are normal are addressed. If it wasn't such an uncomfortable subject to talk about would we still have all these awkward and weird middle schoolers or would they be able to see what is happening to them is a normal thing.

Anti-Oppressive Eduation

Kumashiro's article gives some very interesting insights into preventing and abolishing oppressive eduation. Personally, I think that it is very hard to eliminate the "other". People tend to organize themselves based on traits that they share in common, so for many people there will always be the "other". Knowing that, I still think it is important that teachers eliminate this oppressiveness as much as possible in the classroom. One step is educating teachers on how to eliminate oppressiveness in the classroom. This requires the school districts taking responsibility. I do not think it is possible to eliminate oppressiveness with the cooperation of one teacher. Like Kumnshiro points out in his article, it needs to be something that changed on a bigger level in society not just a small classroom. I do think that any teacher can make a difference by recognizing this problem and trying to make improvements in her classroom but once the students leave the classroom they will be faced with the same oppressiveness in other classes if those teachers are not working towards eliminating it. This article has made me realize the most that even without knowing it, you could be oppressie to a student's education. Educating teachers and making them more aware of the issue is important in starting to eliminae this problem.