Week 4: When I reflect on a good student’s characteristics, I envision to student eager and ready to learn. They are always on time for class with resources for learning prepared. They are attentive for synchronized learning and focus when involved in asynchronized learning. The good student is always clean and well mannered, pleasant and gets along with all their peers. They never fidget or need time outs; basically, they conform to the school’s rules and make teaching easy. Now, where did I come up with these characteristics? They are my commonsense based on experiences, the media and society, but when did these become commonsense? When looking at the history of education, its focus was oppressive that “evolved a system of education in conformity with the fundamental idea of its civilization.” (p vii) To save society from repeating mistakes of the past, children are to be educated in history to provide ways to avoid such errors. To achieve that, “implicit obedience has to be the first lesson.” (p ix) Past discipline contributes to my commonsense understanding of the good student, for obedience seems to be the center of what it means to be a good student, conform, and learn without question. In the past, many forms of discipline were implemented to achieve the “good student” worldwide. Historically, China used “the rattan or bamboo” to strike a student; harsher forms of discipline were “scolding, castigation, starving and imprisonment.” (p 13) Where India “only after admonition has failed that bodily pain is inflicted by a rod, by placing the pupil in an uncomfortable position, or by pouring cold water on [them].” (p18) Fear of discipline creates conformity for the good student, and generation after generation, the avoidance of punishment has made the commonsense for the good student.
When looking at education as a product model, we aim for the same results across the board, which often results in some students’ oppression. Kumashiro shares some of his experiences dealing with the pressure of students in Against Common Sense, Chapter 2, “Preparing Teachers for Crisis: What It Means to Be a Student.” He talks about how in conformity and teaching the ideal student, we easily forget that students are individual thinkers and learners. “That oppression can result from what students learn as well as from how students learn [but] oppression can also result from who we allow students to be.” (p 23) Parallel to how students learn, we also need to consider who benefits from being the good student. On average, the good student will come from the middle to upper class. Finances will not overly affect their ability to receive a proper education. Students who struggle to mean this preconceived notion of the good student either academically or physically will face hurdles and conflict through their education. The good student is privileged to an accessible pathway through education.