“Good” Students

To be a “good” student means to accept the information you are taught, even though it may be biased by that person’s perspective, as the truth without question. Well off, male, white students are privileged by this definition. This is due to the fact that these societal privileges ensure that these students are “comfortable” with the information they’re taught. Regardless of the fact that to the students without this privilege, this information may be incorrect. Kumashiro’s reading shows how this teaching of misinformation can hinder students learning and how being made uncomfortable by new information is a common reaction to new truth’s. Historically this view of a “good” person (student), was shaped by colonialism/colonization by the European’s. They believed that being white, male, and well off made you “better”. Education, as shown in the History of Education reading, was shaped into supporting this ideal. Their wording always referred to men and not women. As well as describing a students ability to learn and become a “good” student based off the European view of a hierarchy of ethnicities. For example, people of “oriental” descent were described as: “…hypocritical and dishonest”. Although this has changed in today’s educational system, commonsense viewpoints that reinforce colonialism are still being taught in Canadian classrooms.