Throughout our lives we have always believed education is the key to knowledge and power. As we progress through life we find ourselves at a vulnerable state In which we begin to question our purpose. We begin high school with the belief that the teachers will guide us and help us attain the knowledge that is required to progress to a college or a university. The students sit In class expecting to be taught in a manner in which they can comprehend and grasp everything that the instructor as to give.
But in reality today’s educators tend to teach by having students copy down a full board of notes filled with the Information that the Instructor Is supposed to immerse the students into. Because of instances like this you have writers like Fire, Pratt, Rodriguez, and Miller questioning the true motives of those in the profession of the literate arts. Fire feels as though educators have a critical role In each and every student’s life. Education for Fire is not a neutral process; it is often assumed that teachers have something that the students lack.
When teachers resent a subject to their students, they present a point of view on that particular subject. Fire demands that teachers either “work for the liberation of the people and their humanity or for their domestication, their domination. ” Paulo Fire argues that “the teacher has knowledge and makes deposits – like moving money from a wallet to the bank vault. ” Paulo argues that this method is malicious and that humanity is at stake if this concept is to be kept alive by literate arts teachers and educators alike. When Paulo makes that statement It lets me know how serious he Is about the subject.
He believes that being an educator Is a fragile position to have. When educating their students, the teacher must put forth a better effort so that every student understands what they were learning. Paulo believes that education by memorization is a crime against humanity and that teachers should look for more interesting and engaging ways to help get the students involved in the classroom. The practice of teaching Is not an easy one. A teacher’s most crucial skill is their ability to help students engage in critical thinking environments such as contact zones in which Mary Louise Pratt writes about.
Pratt describes contact zones as social spaces where different cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each, often In contexts of asymmetrical relations of power such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today. Pratt uses the term “contact zones” to help her reconsider the models of community that many of us rely on in teaching and theorizing. Those two cultures exchange multiple elements, which make them change themselves too. A community is another social space where people have the same backgrounds, goals, points of view and opportunities.
How can a contact zone or a community have a particular impact in literate arts? The term transfiguration is used to describe processes whereby members of subordinated groups select Ana Invent Trot materials transmitter Day a nominal or metropolitan culture. This process was vital for them because they were able to record their history, relay it to next generations and maintain their identity. Another positive thing of contact zone is auto-ethnography. It means that people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them.
There is also another common belief that muff make your mark on a book, and it makes its mark on you. ” This phrase helps me put Richard Rodriguez’ essay into perspective. Rodriguez becomes fascinated with a passage that he has read out of a book written by Richard Haggard entitled “The Uses of Literacy’. By reading this passage Rodriguez realizes that for the first time there were other students in the world who are going through the same issues that he is dealing with as a college student. With that in mind he was able to frame the meaning of his academic success, “its consequent price – the loss.
Some argue that Rodriguez misread the book, but the power and value of his readings are represented by what he was able to do with what he read and made it work for him. Rodriguez applies this to his life as he deals with his problems and issues. Time after time we become able to interpret even the most difficult things off particular field. Rodriguez story is relatable to Just about every high school and college students in the world. The relationship with his parents tells us a lot of things. When he was a child, he used to feel embarrassed when he was with them. Due to their lack of knowledge, he was preparing from them.
After some years he understood that his parents loved him more than he could ever before imagine. They left their home country for a better future for their children. They wanted to give them opportunities that they did not have growing up. This is the positive side of the literate arts that Rodriguez begins to explain. They help us to understand the world around us, the sacrifices of the people who really love us and the purpose of their sacrifices. I find this relatable because to me family is one of the most important things in life. In most cases your immediate family will always want the best for you.
They want to see you succeed and strive for excellence but at the same time you must remember where you came from and how you got there. In order to have a connection with anything you must first understand how and why education relates to it. The society we live in evolves at a slower pace than most would like to realize. We change with every step that we take, understanding more situations and being able to explain and interpret them through our own eyes. Our education is the reason for these changes that we go through in our lives. However, we have to deal with some problems and issues that are raised by Richard Miller in his essay.
Miller has doubts about his professional field. He questions whether the literate arts really matters or can it do any good in a world filled with the violence and cruel nature of humanity itself. These doubts are clearly recognized through his writings in which he relates literature and its authors to the readers and their reality. I feel as though Miller takes an ambitious stance on education and how much good it does in reality. As I read Miller’s essay I found myself agreeing with most of the concepts that Miller believes in. I find myself questioning the motive of educators and their intent on teaching reality or fiction.
We have the power of our knowledge, voice and dreams. I represent a group of people who think that life is more than Just going to school every day and copying notes from a canal Dora. Elite snout a De level. Everyone NAS tens ruling Ana can Talent to Tuttle tens mission, but without harming others. I will always try to give my best to help others and to see smiles in their faces. That is what this literate arts sequence has taught me. Reading, writing, talking in critical and self-reflective ways is the best way to become successful and stay motivated for the future.
