To be a “good” student in regards to the commomsense ideas we have from our own educational experiences is a discourse in which I am so excited to challenge. I look forward to breaking the stigma that a “good” student learns and understands in a “normal” and constructive way. All students learn in new and different ways and as educators, we are responsible to offer opportunities for success of all students. We must break the discourse that a “good” student is one who listens, engages, and follows all instructions. We must understand that not all students can show their learning and understandings by memorizing information and acing the tests we use to decide if we are hitting the marks of the curriculum.
After reading the article Against common sense, I am enthralled and excited with the notions and examples they bring forth and that begin to crack the oppressive discourse of what it means to be a “good” student: “I want to argue that oppression can also result from who we allow students to be. There is something oppressive about what we often say it means to be a student and, simultaneously, what it means to learn” (21). Those students who are privileged by the idea of what it means to be a “good” student are those in the white category, those who are well off financially, those with successful parents, and big houses. Those students in the minorities who struggle to find their voice amongst those who oppress them are the ones who desperately need us as new educators to break the discourse of how all students “must” learn.
Because of these commonsense ideas around the “good” student, it is impossible to see the efforts and struggles being made by those students who are oppressed and do not fall into this ridiculous category of how all students are expected to learn. “It is not our lack of knowledge but our resistance to knowledge and our desire for ignorance that often prevent us from changing the oppressive status quo” (25). We need to break the stigma of “commonsense” because everyone’s commonsense is different. A “good” student will be determined by the child’s confidence in their capabilities grows and in the opportunities we as educators give all students to succeed in their academics in and outside of school.