The Critical Pedagogy Reader

          Reading all of this pedagogy is something pretty new to me. I love to read the teaching practices of other people. This article was no different.
          When the students are shown a broad world view they are being given the knowledge to make their own opinions. So many times I have heard students, even my college level friends, answer a question on why their opinion is what it is with, "because my parents think that." As a teacher we should enable them to make their own opinions and not just go with the flow on what ever they hear. Many times students don't have opinions about certain topics, because they have been taught about them. If teachers taught their students about a certain topic, then discussed it in a classroom discussion, the students develop their own opinions making those students more well rounded individuals.
          I agree with the part in the discourse section about not only preparing the students for the business world, but showing the students about the other issues that are in the world. That part in the reading reminded me of a lesson my master teacher was teaching with her cooperating teacher last week. These two teachers had been teaching about the rights that Americans are born with, and how there are still people in America who have those rights taken away, in human trafficking. After this lesson the students were visibly shocked by the information they were learning. It was amazing how many students were moved by this lesson, students even wanted to create a club that went to classrooms and taught their peers about the human trafficking that is still occurring in America. If teachers only prepared their students for a world of business there wouldn't be the students who are so moved to go on after high school to take action and help end the human trafficking that is occurring.
          "School knowledge should help create the conditions productive for student self-determination in the larger society." I think this quote really takes it home. Students shouldn't be robots that are pre-programmed to type numbers into a calculator. Our students should have an education that gives them things to think about and that they are determined to do something about.