Interesting question regarding the tagline/mission statement. It did catch me off guard, in that as soon as I see the word "disobedience" I immediately have visions of artistic social disorder/chaos: behaviors that aren't so Gandhi-like :) I googled the term and found this site about the concept. If anything, I'm intrigued http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/07/07/the-educational-value-of-creative-disobedience/
I also wanted to thank you for bringing my attention to this website. 3 years ago, I met a teacher who teaches at this school. We met at a 3 day Nonviolent Communication workshop (side note: this descriptor, "nonviolent", also comes under scrutiny. It can engage listeners/readers in thinking that they are implicitly violent. Defenses go up.) I hadn't thought of her or the school for a while. This was a lovely trip down memory lane, and an inspiring reminder that "disobedience" can actually be lovingly promoted in this country.
Thanks for your reply. I'm of the believe that disobedience can be understood in a lot of different ways. This is also (and maybe especially) true of our classrooms. There's a great paper by Canagarajah in which he makes a distinction between "opposition" and "resistance". i think he actually takes this from Giroux. Anyway, opposition refers to a simple and often thoughtless rejection while resistance refers to a reasoned and even calculated response. So he figured that when working class kids refuse to engage in a classroom activity, it very well may be a rational and calculated response based on their understanding that school doesn't solve their problems. So he says we have to understand responses as more than just oppositional but potentially as political acts of resistance. oh, and my favorite recent quote speaks to this as well. "Democracy is noisy". something to remember when classes start to seem a little out of hand :)
Interesting question regarding the tagline/mission statement. It did catch me off guard, in that as soon as I see the word "disobedience" I immediately have visions of artistic social disorder/chaos: behaviors that aren't so Gandhi-like :) I googled the term and found this site about the concept. If anything, I'm intrigued http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/07/07/the-educational-value-of-creative-disobedience/
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to thank you for bringing my attention to this website. 3 years ago, I met a teacher who teaches at this school. We met at a 3 day Nonviolent Communication workshop (side note: this descriptor, "nonviolent", also comes under scrutiny. It can engage listeners/readers in thinking that they are implicitly violent. Defenses go up.) I hadn't thought of her or the school for a while. This was a lovely trip down memory lane, and an inspiring reminder that "disobedience" can actually be lovingly promoted in this country.
Thanks for your reply. I'm of the believe that disobedience can be understood in a lot of different ways. This is also (and maybe especially) true of our classrooms. There's a great paper by Canagarajah in which he makes a distinction between "opposition" and "resistance". i think he actually takes this from Giroux. Anyway, opposition refers to a simple and often thoughtless rejection while resistance refers to a reasoned and even calculated response. So he figured that when working class kids refuse to engage in a classroom activity, it very well may be a rational and calculated response based on their understanding that school doesn't solve their problems. So he says we have to understand responses as more than just oppositional but potentially as political acts of resistance. oh, and my favorite recent quote speaks to this as well. "Democracy is noisy". something to remember when classes start to seem a little out of hand :)
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