Beyond Me!!!!

I must say that I really enjoyed the article “Beyond Methods Fetish” by Lilia Bartolome because this author captures exactly how I feel when people come to one of my workshops. The first question they ask is “Are there handouts available?” Immediately, I think to myself “Hell NO!” I can’t really say this or even further begin to explain the numerous comments that are flushing through head at this time, so I just smile.


I think the big issue, as Bartolome brings up, is the argument itself that addresses the achievement gap of minority marginalized students approach the problem as a technical flaw. Bartolome insists that the solution can be found in the “right teaching methods.” This approach negates any responsibility to the raggedy educational system or to the “fix them” mentality of the teachers. The notion is that once the teacher finds out how “they”aren’t learning, the methodology of teaching just has to be altered and “these kids”(certain cultural and linguistically subordinated students) will magically get it.


Bartolome also emphasizes the fact that many pre-service teachers believe whole-heartedly in the “one-size fits all” approach. Of course the problem with this is the size. As a critical pedagogue, I can’t help but to think, whose size are we using and how do we know it works? Who said so and then further, who are these people who deemed it so, what makes them the experts? The article later describes possible frameworks or models that assist in the thinking or planning of educating marginalized students. Those two “Humanizing Pedagogical” models are Culturally Responsive Instruction and Strategic Thinking.


Bartolome and I could go out for a couple of beers because she hits the nail on the head when she states, “Education can be a process in which teacher and students mutually participate in the intellectually exciting undertaking we call learning. Students can become active subjects of their own learning, instead of passive objects…. teachers must discard deficit views so they can use and build on life experiences and language styles too often viewed and labeled as low class and undesirable.” Go Girl!!! Even though this is based on a critical post modernistic constructive viewpoint, works from Freire and other liberating teachers offer a similar philosophy in that the teacher is a co-learner.


It is beyond me what our educational system is doing to our kids. It is also beyond me that our current educators don’t want to use their brains to get know our children because they’d rather come to a workshop and steal your handouts in hopes of your methods being the magic bullets in their classrooms. It is beyond me that we, as educators, don’t value our craft as an art-form because if we did we would be ashamed of replicating exactly what someone else has done to “fix our problems” with marginalized students. It is just beyond me that our teaching credential programs don’t emphasize the creative potential in classrooms anymore because testing and scores have placed a rubric on our teachers. It is beyond me that one of the largest unions in the nation has not stood up to such racialized and deligimatimized system! It is all BEYOND ME!