This weeks reading was fairly short but raised a lot of valid points and concerns I never though about around the idea of ‘common sense.’ Kumashiro defines common sense many times throughout the reading, the most simple definition being “what everyone should know” (29). Throughout the reading Kumashiro goes onto explain why it is important to pay attention to common sense ideas. We need to pay attention to common sense ideas because they set a standard of how things ‘should’ be based of the few perspectives, experiences, and values of the privileged people in the society which marginalizes others on the basis of things like race, class, religion, and sexual orientation. This poses a problem because common sense ideas are difficult to challenge because they are hard to recognize and easy to seek comfort in. Although it is difficult to challenge, it is necessary, we need to intentionally look for common sense ideals and resist seeking comfort because as Kumashiro said, “what common sense does not often tell us is that the status quo is quite oppressive” (36).

As a prospective teacher, it is important for me to reflect on what common sense ideas I carry with me into the classroom. As previously mentioned, the problem with common sense ideas, is that you don’t really know is considered common sense until otherwise proven. A simple example of this happened to me in the winter semester in my French class when the professor was telling us about how when she came to Canada, she didn’t realize that our Calendar weeks start of Sunday and not Monday. But as she was explaining how shock she was, I experienced that same shock because I honestly didn’t know or even think that other places in the world would structure their calendars differently until she shared that story. I just assumed it was the norm or “common sense” to have the week start of Sundays. So, examining my common sense understandings of curriculum and pedagogy is tricky because I don’t know what is considered “common sense.” I believe pedagogy needs to be inclusive and include more than just notes and worksheets. However, in regard to curriculum, I view it as a legal document that limits teachers on what/how they teach in order to reach specific outcomes by the end of the year. I will probably realize that I have a lot more common sense ideas of curriculum and pedagogy than I thought as we navigate through this course.