1. In Kohl's "I Won't Learn From You" he raises many points about how fear of failure and willed not learning go hand in hand, "Conscious, willed refusal of schooling for political or cultural reasons is a response to oppressive education." Kohl is saying that willed learning is someones response to the way they were raised and that just because people are choosing to not learn doesn't mean that they can't. Take the story of Barry for example. Barry was a student that refused to learn because he had been given free reign in the classroom. He chose not to read with the rest of the class, yet we knew he was capable of something because he was a natural leader and someone whom all of the kids knew. What was his problem? He was afraid of failure, however when he was given to tools to succeed, he passed with flying colors, eventually even developing reading skills. Kohl also states "Until we learn to distinguish not-learning from failure and respect the truth behind this massive rejection of schooling by students from poor oppressed communities, it will not be possible to solve the major problems of the education system of the United States today." This is a great claim! its juicy and to the point and what i think Kohl is getting at is similar to my essay, he believes there is an alternative out there that can help students learn in different ways. Not learning and failure have their differences and when we fail to recognize this we let students past that may have willfully not learned the material, not because they are dumb but because they didn't want to. The question then arises, how do we make ALL people want to learn?
2. Kohl argues that we cannot solve the problems with America's Education System until we have distinguished not-learning form failure. An all to common problem in harder areas of the united states. for whatever reason the students and teachers seem to be reaching what Pratt would refer to as a contact zone. In this contact zone students meet teachers, students are armed to the teeth, with "NO", "I DON'T WANT TO" and "SHUTUP". What weapons does that leave the teacher with? The primary issue is that these kids are not being taught they way they should be. The children in classes choosing to not learn are not being catered to instead they are being treated as failures which in some cases, like Barry's, is exactly what they need in order to learn. This brings to question in my mind, what are the alternatives? Yes, we have seem remedial classes and other sorts of alternative schooling, but these classes i feel do more harm than good when it comes to helping students learn in different ways. These classes are used for students who teachers sometimes have given up on. How is the education system in America supposed to change if the students are not learning. Is it not the teachers job to find ways around these barriers and adjust to the students that they are teaching. There are many questions as to why we have the problems within the education system that we do and it is a curious thing that students would choose to willfully not learn instead of participate. Yet to each his own and if thats what it takes is a teacher going the extra mile to teach a student I think thats when the teacher is doing their job correctly. Now I'm not saying give one teacher a whole group of these kids but what i am saying is that the teachers need to be more accommodating to these students because in the end they are just the students of a compulsory education system. They are not the ones making the lesson plans. I think more of the weight of this problem lies with the teachers and less with the students.
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