Kumashiros definition  of common sense

Kumashiros defines ‘commonsense’ as a way of knowing something that is common among a group of people. It is important to pay attention to common sense because what is common sense for one person is not common sense for everyone, each culture, group of individuals has a different idea of what common sense is. Common sense can sometimes be seen as dangerous, living in a world where we think that everything is common sense to everyone. It leaves us to understand that everyone knows what the common sense is for that group could lead to someone not knowing and getting hurt. Everyone has a different idea of what common sense should be, it all depends on where you grew up, its based off of experiences in life, your culture, and education. Common sense comes from unwritten ideals that we have came up within our society. They are what we would call logical, and they make perfect sense when we are introduced to them. Take for example the ideal of common sense that we need to look both ways before crossing the street, or that in order to run you need to learn to walk first. These thing we start to engrain in our life, we begin to repeat them, and after so long you do not have to think about them. After a period, we stop challenging these ideals because it is something everyone knows and something that each individual knows can’t be wrong right?

Some common sense understanding of curriculum and pedagogy I will bring into this class is the idea that our curriculum is flawed and what we have known for so long needs to be challenged. Curriculum standards reflect what some in society are things that students should already know how to do. Norms within schools, often like the norms of society often times than not benefit other groups more than others. I would like to challenge the ideals of common sense within a classroom, because of the increase in minority groups coming into Canada that don’t know the ideals of common sense we cannot assume that everyone knows what common sense is anymore.