The “Good” Student
To be a good student according to “common sense” you must follow and obey what is expected of you. What society, public, or teachers consider the norm for their classrooms. In Kumashiro’s second chapter of his novel, Against Common Sense he talks about, how he became frustrated with students. He assumed that “being a student required behaving and thinking in only certain ways, but also because he felt pressure from schools and society to produce this type of student” (Kumashiro p. 21). The good students were the ones that sat quietly, completed their work on time, did not challenge the teacher, raised their hands when they were asking or answering questions, and participated in activities following the guidelines given by the instructor. The bad students were the ones that challenged ideas, did not sit still, would not listen, and made the school day more difficult for the teacher leaving them feeling frustrated with those types of students.
In A History of Education written by F. V. N. Painter (1886), we learn that teachers were taught to teach students to be good citizens. The educational journey was least important. What was important was “education does not aim to develop a perfect man or women, but prepare its subjects for their place in the established order of things” (Painter p. 9). The students would become functioning adults who would contribute to society they did not care about different needs of students. Although, this text is dated it still plays a role in education. We were raised on the European views on what education and citizenship should look like. We were taught eurocentrism and the importance of it and only it.
The privililedged students would be the students who knew the most knowledge going into these schools. Students who spoke the same language, whose parents were able to give them background knowledge and opportunities (mainly, white students who came from wealthier families), students who the society considered valuable because of their race. Those students were at an advantage because our educational system was racist and one-sided and that was what was being taught. That is what teachers were told would make Canada a better place. That is why historical views played a factor on what were good student in schools.
https://archive.org/details/historyofeducati00painiala/page/8/mode/2up
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kkJc7k2AyKB-Usl3pujiMAeWpfzmpZRK/view