The Perils of Positive Thinking
The following is extracted from an email correspondence between myself and a colleague in school. In this extract, I am stating my point that, as educators, we need to go beyond ‘changing of mindsets’ and ‘trying to be positive’ about some of the implementations in school that are obviously not in the interest of students. Too often, teachers are unable to expand their imagination to realize the long-term social implications of certain policies and initiatives pushed down from school leaders. Instead of expressing dissent for the sake of students’ well-being, these teachers are forced, by a system that lays much importance on a performance-based ranking, to stay positive and accept things as they come, so as not to affect their own ranking, appraised by the school leaders themselves, which in turn could topple their iron rice-bowl over.
[Start of email response]
Firstly, I don’t question the need for more creative and innovative ways of teaching and learning. From a Deweyean perspective, I strongly uphold the idea of a progressive education which involves experimental and exploratory learning at the same time involving trial and error, design and criticism.
However, in discussing new technologies and literacies, we also need to constantly raise the questions: whose interests are these emerging technologies and pedagogies serving? Are they really helping the students in their learning? If yes, then the next question we ought to ask is: will there be any group which will be eventually excluded?
By allowing external corporate agencies such as Apple Co. to infiltrate our schools, are we actually preparing our students for their future, or are we simply reproducing existing inequalities and inequity? Do you have any idea how much the iPod touch cost? Of course students from wealthy families have no issue with this,
but how about those coming from the lower income strata?
Personally, I’m seriously and utterly disgusted by the idea that students can buy it on an installment plan. I’m not sure if we are even aware that some of these students come from families who are still grappling with their home electrical bills. These are the ones who will be excluded eventually.
I believe we need to go beyond changing of mindsets or trying to be positive about all these, and look at the bigger picture. Are we educators moulding a generation of critical thinking individuals, or are we inadvertently producing passive consumers who have constant longing for mindless consumption and entertainment?
Call me the worst ICT executive you ever met, but I’m only interested in technology that liberates the minds of the students, not those which turn them into benumbed automatons capable of only regurgitating information, simultaneously allowing some corporate agencies to rake in huge profit from it.
[End of email response]
