For the fourth blog post, I had the chance to look deeper into commonsense. Experiencing education as a student in high school and through post-secondary, I have seen a focus on following the different rules and systems set in place. By establishing these aspects, they enhance and attempt to benefit the educational experience of all students. Although, as mentioned by Kumashiro, it can be seen that commonsense limits the opportunity to engage in different forms of education and privileges certain people. Many of these points have been historically established, which means as educators we need to work on expanding how students learn.

To answer the first question: what does it mean to be a “good” student? According to commonsense, there are many different elements. In Kumashiro’s work Preparing Teachers for Crisis: A Sample Lesson, it can be highlighted that good students fulfill the model that schools and societies often expect. This could mean completing the required assignments, and standardized tests to determine what they have learned throughout the semester (Kumashiro, pg. 21). Other key points that stuck out to me is that students should not show any criticism towards the various approaches to instructional strategy as well as the mere notion of mainstream approaches to different values and perspectives (Kumashiro, pg 22). It was noted that the primary focus for students was to be leaving school with more knowledge than they previously had in September (Kumashiro, pg. 24). A challenge that arises with this is that the knowledge that students may have held prior to attending certain classes may have contributed to their feeling of “ comfortable with uncritical assumptions that supported the status quo” ( Kumashiro, pg. 25). This highlights that “good” students are meeting standards that comply with common sense. If we have the chance to incorporate crises in learning as new information, “good” students would be able to challenge the knowledge they already have which supports the status quo ( Kumashiro, pg. 32).

Looking into the second question of which students are privileged from the definition highlighted, it could be seen that students who have been taught to meet the standards emphasized by society and have adjusted to the one perspective which has been taught by prior educational experiences. This contributes to the need to emphasize to students that relearning concepts can introduce new perspectives and being aware of resistance to learning other things (Kumashiro, pg. 26). As well, students and educators who live in the status quo and from backgrounds of privilege could be continuing to reaffirm the oppressive education systems in place.

For the third question, drawing upon Painter’s work A history of education, we can see how the “good” student has been shaped by historical factors. Within the context of this work, we see that “good” students take their place as a subject in the established order ( Painter, pg. 9). It has been described that students and the educational pathways that they select is a diagram of a tree growing ( Painter, pg.1). This highlights that historically, students followed one path, and experienced growth at a fixed rate on the linear path. This had to be accepted as without education “ man is helpless and ignorant” ( Painter, pg. 2). Being a ‘good student’ has also been shaped by the historical principles that “ development and acquisition of knowledge” ( Painter, pg. 4) are the core elements of education. This article highlights shocking points based on how different cultures of education are viewed through the dominant lens of the white Anglo-Saxon and how historically western education oppresses different cultures and perspectives.

Having the chance to learn more about the concepts and themes that can impact students every day, as well as the systems in place that prioritize the “good” student, shows me that commonsense is present within many different aspects of education. As Kumashiro has mentioned, educators need to utilize different tools to ensure anti-oppressive education.