Alice's Reading Notes Class 2/2

"Education must be guided by metaphors that unsettle, that expect students to seek, find, and invent what we do not yet know, that lead us not only to imagine but also to create other possible worlds."

What do you think?  How could schools not only tolerate but promote "unsettling" of given knowledge and the status quo?  How to shift from knowing to inventing what we do not yet know?

"Watching Neo, we realize that what his teachers have accomplished is not only creating space for experimentation, consultation, failure, critical reflection, and renewed effort—as do educators guided by metaphors such as education as growth and learning as participation—but also from within that space they have helped Neo to realize the necessity of transforming himself. Furthermore, this neophyte turned future leader has learned—as I also discuss, regarding the metaphor of education as translation, that a neophyte in any new context must learn—that the most, perhaps only, effective transformation is one effected by the self with the guidance and support of others."

Are schools (any? which) ready to let students fail, to support them in critical reflection and renewed effort? Are they ready for students to transform themselves? 

OAKES & LIPTON

Take a look at the timelines of key events in US Ed history and language minority planning and see where you identify elements in your own schooling.  What metaphors inhere in these events, and in the various purposes of education O & L trace?

What happens to your thinking about where Ed is and can go when you consider how relatively new the US system is?

BROOKS

What metaphors tend to govern your everyday life?

What metaphors can you use to think about the educational autobiographies we read for last class?