#PYP: Trying to Avoid Controversy? An inquiry into How We Express Ourselves.

I really want this nagging to go away. It’s been going on for months, maybe ever since the American Presidential campaign, maybe for even longer. But as time passes, it has become more apparent that I have the opportunity to change the future as an educator. Yet I wonder if I  have the courage to challenge the status quo or do I just keep up the pretense that classism and sexism and racism doesn’t exist?–not in my classroom!…. Anyhow,  we address those more prickly issues in PYP Exhibition, right? C’mon, it’s not an age-appropriate topic for younger grades, yeah? No, no, no, we should just do a wonderfully creative and fun How We Express Themselves unit to round off the year.

The educator has the duty of not being neutral.
Paulo Freire, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

However, there has been a recurrent theme that just keeps popping up and I think avoiding difficult discussions is no longer an option.  This year a snowball has been building, from the “Me Too” movement to reading The Power by Naomi Alderman, to conversations about the UN’s Global Goals to a blog post on Making Good Humans which kicked me in the pants about the importance of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire.  But just yesterday-as I sit in a parent-teacher conference, I spoke with one of the mother’s about her son’s difficulty with working with girls and his frequent use of sexist comments. The mother just sort of nervously laughed it off and said, “Well, his father is from south-east Asia so what do you expect?”

Huh…….

What do we expect?  That’s a fair question.

Here’s my answer:

When we fail to educate our children about these issues, then yes, we can expect more of the same. And if we don’t examine these beliefs and perceptions in the early primary when they are being hard-wired into our brains, then when will it ever be a good time?

Their ideal is to be men but for them to be men is to be oppressors. This is their model of humanity. –Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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Last week, when our team sat down to discuss and challenge the central idea: Our experience and imagination can help us to create, our conversation on collaboration shifted to examining the larger context of this transdisciplinary theme:

An inquiry into…the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

Now we are looking at changing the central idea to

The language we use can communicate messages and develop relationships.

Some ideas that sprang forward as we tweaked the central idea was to develop learning intentions and provocations which involved examining the following:

• audience as a context for storytelling
• writing: revision and word choice, spelling and conventions
• computer programming language: 2D and 3D shapes drawing.
• digital citizenship (via SeeSaw): how to provide feedback online
• blogging: reflection on learning through SeeSaw
• reading: visualization strategies
• dramatic arts: acting out scenes in our stories.
• Social Emotional Learning:: collaboration and conflict resolution–tie back into Who We Are unit

As I stare at this benign-sounding central idea, I am reminded of another quote from Paulo Freire: “language is never neutral”.  I suspect this might be true and maybe it’s worth exploring.

Honest to goodness, I’ve never considered engaging in controversy in the classroom. In all my years of teaching, I have played it safe. I may say provocative statements every now and again amongst my peers, but I have never thrown a genuine conflict into the front and center of the learning. And now I am seriously considering it–I’m sure to my team’s chagrin–to bring it into the curriculum. But this isn’t about the sexist commentary that I witness in an influential boy in our class, it’s also about “white-privilege”, classism and economic disparity that I have observed in silence as an international educator. Furthermore, I know that these topics may also touch a nerve in me–how do my own actions and words contribute to the –isms? I am just as much a student as I am a teacher in this sort of inquiry, recognizing that I am blind to so many things just because of the privilege that I have experienced in my life. There is something personal at stake when I start poking around these cultural “sleeping dogs”.

“The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of a ‘circle of certainty’ within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 

As I find the words to finish off this blog post, I have a strong compelling feeling mixed with fear; in my heart, I am searching for the hope that we can execute this idea well, that my intention to address this need in our humanity will be well-received and that our provocations spark more kindness and compassion in our learning community.  And, maybe I too will be transformed in the process, learning more about myself and how I can contribute to the dignity and joy of those who I share this planet with.

Any and all ideas welcomed by educators who have been braved enough to confront these issues are highly valued and welcomed.  Please post in the comments below.