Poetry and Patriotism (article)
In this article Maxine Greene Speaks about her experience at a slam poetry session with various urban teenage poets. She finds their performances and works intensely passionate and profound with the topics of the poetry ranging from outrage against discrimination to the war in Iraq. She asks us the reader, “Should schools be teaching these students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? – And allegiance to what? To the United States of America? To the President and his cronies?” She believed that it is up to the young people to change the world; that in order to get people to act and work towards improving society, we first need to get them out of their zones of complacency. At the end of the article Maxine states that such views may be part of an “emancipatory curriculum”, where the approach to education goes beyond the transfer of knowledge, encouraging the challenging of the dominant socio-economic and political norms/relations.
I also chose a few quotes that I found from Maxine that I felt got across a strong message in a few words or sentences. One of the quotes was one I believe we were shown in class as well, “The arts, it has been said, cannot change the world, but they may change human beings who might change the world.” This quote is one that stood out to me the most as I feel it shows how strongly she believes in the things she has faith in. Maxine Greene was known for her love of aesthetic education, confident that the arts could help foster the want for change in young people. For her, even if art isn’t the fix for all problems, it could lead those who were looking for direction down the right path to change. Another quote that I found interesting was, “Part of teaching is helping people create themselves,” and I interpreted that to mean that being a teacher isn’t just showing kids how to do addition, or write complete sentences or learning the periodic table. Being a teacher also means showing children how to be social/interact, how to critically think, how to distinguish from right and wrong and how to become confident, independent decision makers. As future teachers, we will have a big influence on youth during the years in their lives when they are finding out who they are.
For my first assignment, I plan on using Maxine Greene as one of my scholars and finding two other theorist who both agree and disagree with her stances. I have narrowed down my choices to a handful of articles by Maxine and her ideas on education. With these articles, I will address the similarities and differences in the arguments presented and how they connect with one another.
Greene, M. (2006). Poetry and Patriotism. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(8), 596–596. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170608700814
https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/emancipatory-education/72862
Great summary of the article you are using.
I was able to follow along very easily and I can tell you enjoy the topic.
You brought up both emancipatory education and aesthetic education so I’m not sure which is the main focus.
Nice plan going forward and I know you’ll have a lot of good points for the other articles as well.
compliment critique compliment
I love the quotes you picked to use. They are full quotes that get you thinking about what Maxine Greene is trying to teach and tell us. One thing I will say for your project is don’t go out of your way to find someone who agrees with Greene. It’s good to have counterarguments about topics so that the teacher can read and think about it more rather than saying that o this person and this person say the same. But I think you have an excellent foundation for this work assignment!
Hi Carlos! I love how you included meaningful quotes in your summary, it really highlights what Greene is all about. I feel like I am getting a sense of her voice as well as yours in this post. I am struggling to find a critique because this is well written and has great grammar. Perhaps I could suggest a more creative title but that is minor. Great work!