Preface - "As a person's circumstances change, so it is likely that the arguments they follow and the places they follow them to will change."
This statement makes me think about the arguments that I have followed through my life. As I got older and my interested started to focus in more towards education, it seemed to be the area where I cared the most about the arguments be had. If anyone has been following HB 4014, it has been my main argument focus for the past couple of weeks. I think the reason for the focus is because it seems to be a threat, to my livelihood and to what I care about most. Sure there were a lot of things in that bill to care about, but of course I focused in on the education portion of the bill because that's where I am in my life. This is a very powerful quote indeed.
Chapter 1 - "The most likely consequence of this is that the focus of their self-evaluation will then shift to these other (material) considerations, where they are objectively 'inferior.'"
Self-esteem plays such a huge role in a persons life that can even keep them from doing things they want to do. If someone does not think they are smart enough to be literal and are constantly put down it can make it to where they never want to even try. In this age people can feel this inferiority when they see someone with more material things than them. This is not how it should be, but in this world that is how intelligence and wealth because of that intelligence is shown. Even though a lot of people with the material objects are not deserving of them when it comes to intelligence, but because they have them they get a self-esteem boost to make them believe in themselves more. If the person who thinks they are inferior was put in a position like that I am sure they would perform as well or better than the person who is in that position.
Chapter 2 - "Rather, it is acknowledged that the symbols--words, texts, primers--employed in teaching and learning communicate ideological values to the learner that very process of their becoming literate."
This quote gets me thinking about words, texts, and primers and what they truly stand for. It's like how some languages don't have words for what another language is taking about. It is a value or feeling that is unique to the culture and language. A way to describe something that only they can truly understand because that is where it was born.
Good points about HB 4014. As a union officer, I follow WV politics closely (even though it's bad for my blood pressure). WV, in fact, has plenty of functionally literate folks getting pushed around by the "have mores" in Charleston.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your last quote, it brings to mind for me the terms "Indians" and "Native Americans." How messed up is it that due to colonialization and assimilation, to this very day, entire cultures are referred to by terms other than that which they called themselves?