In “Assessing English So that People Stop Killing Each Other”, we look at the role that English education plays in shaping society, specifically a more compassionate society. The author discusses how traditional classrooms reinforce “white language supremacy” and exclude students who may not fit in that category. The author advocates for “labor-based grading” which would look more at how much students put into their work and their growth. This type of environment will allow academics to be less anxiety ridden. The author then connects linguistic judgement to social violence, claiming that this type of judging and division, especially for marginalized people, leads to real world harm.
I found this reading interesting because I never connected English with society’s lack of compassion or care for each other. It makes sense though. I don’t know if I agree with going as far as saying the judging of linguistics is causing people to kill each other, BUT school is a competitive and judgmental place. It’s not too far off to say that school is the breeding ground for people to systematically “othered” in society. There are negative aspects of the education system that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
In “Love as Pedagogy” the author, Catherine Denial reflects on her transformation as an educator and how she has, overtime, implemented kindness into her pedagogical practice. She talks about how as a professor she notices the lack of kindness from our society, educational institutions and even from herself. Over time, she realized that ridgid control and anticipation of her students to do something “bad” was actually counterproductive. Denial defines “kindness” as, shortly, believing her students and believing in her students.
I think approaching aspects of life with kindness should be used not only in education, but just in general. I can see who assuming the worst of students and society in general would jeopardize a learning environment. When I think back to my favorite teachers and professors I do notice that all of them approached teaching with a sense of “kindness”, which made me an effective learner. My question is, and where I raise an eyebrow to Denial, is how do we deal with younger students? Do we approach them the same way or do we consider that they would take more advantage than adults?
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