While the usual definition of common sense is practical judgement by using prior knowledge, Kumashiro makes a new definition in this reading that applies to our education system and what is considered “common sense” to us educators. He said in the reading that “common sense does not tell us that this is what schools could be doing; it tells us that this and only this is what schools should be doing.” What I draw from this is that the common sense within our education system isn’t telling us what we could be bringing into our classrooms and using to help our students grow but what we should be doing and how its been done traditionally (for so many years). I like this definition because its broad enough to make interpretations but not to broad that it could be taken the wrong way, as well as being very true about the curriculum/education system now.

I think it is very important to pay attention to “common sense” for many reasons. The first being that there is so many applications in the world, such as common sense in eduction or common sense in mathematics. The second reason I believe it to be important is that common sense is different for everyone such as what Kumashiro talked about in the reading. His common sense with regards to teaching/education was very different from those in Nepal and he learned from that experience. This way of thinking that one “common sense” is superior is a problematic view and there are so many things to take into consideration when it comes to common sense for a group of people (things like the geography, socioeconimical state, government and how much they control).

When registering and coming into this course and program I had an idea of what curriculum was but I had no clue what pedagogy was or how it was defined in education. I understood that our curriculum was maintained by the boards and government as well as being what we had to cover through the school year. However, before our first lecture, my understanding of pedagogy was nonexistent but I’m excited to learn how I will teach my classrooms as well as all the other ways our curriculum can be taught.