While lesson planning for a 6th grade physical science class I came across the following activity in the American textbook we use:
"A flat mirror is known as a plane mirror. Look around your home and count the number of plane mirrors."
Most of my students would not be able to complete this assignment at home. In some cases students might not have a home. And in the cases where there is a home, that space very easily might have no mirrors hanging on the wall. Students could however count the mirrors in their dorms here at school.
I have never, until now, read a textbook activity and considered the many assumptions writers and editors make there in the pages of the books. How do my 6th grade students feel when they read this assignment and realize there are no mirrors to count at home? Yes, textbooks are often written for the culture in which the books will be used. An American textbook would be, under normal circumstances, used in America. However there may be students in America who do not have mirrors in their homes. These students would be in the same situation as my 6th graders here in rural India when they read the words in this textbook. Do the tools of education assume a certain socio-economic background? If yes, are we as a society perpetuating the exclusion of entire populations of students? As the educators is it not our responsibility to recognize this?
I am trying my best to objectively observe my reactions to some of the students' life stories. This school is like any other in so many ways. Yet each day at assembly when the children sing I feel a special weight inside me. The stories affect me emotionally but that emotional response seems too little; too insignificant. Perhaps the stories scare me or worry me. Maybe I wish I never came across these histories. How should one carry the burden of knowing? How should I move through the initial emotional response and toward a contructive perspective? When I look at myself in the mirror I know people might consider what we are doing here at Shanti Bhavan good. But I feel I contribute only a small part. There is still much more to do.
Count the mirrors in your home. What do you see?
"A flat mirror is known as a plane mirror. Look around your home and count the number of plane mirrors."
Most of my students would not be able to complete this assignment at home. In some cases students might not have a home. And in the cases where there is a home, that space very easily might have no mirrors hanging on the wall. Students could however count the mirrors in their dorms here at school.
I have never, until now, read a textbook activity and considered the many assumptions writers and editors make there in the pages of the books. How do my 6th grade students feel when they read this assignment and realize there are no mirrors to count at home? Yes, textbooks are often written for the culture in which the books will be used. An American textbook would be, under normal circumstances, used in America. However there may be students in America who do not have mirrors in their homes. These students would be in the same situation as my 6th graders here in rural India when they read the words in this textbook. Do the tools of education assume a certain socio-economic background? If yes, are we as a society perpetuating the exclusion of entire populations of students? As the educators is it not our responsibility to recognize this?
I am trying my best to objectively observe my reactions to some of the students' life stories. This school is like any other in so many ways. Yet each day at assembly when the children sing I feel a special weight inside me. The stories affect me emotionally but that emotional response seems too little; too insignificant. Perhaps the stories scare me or worry me. Maybe I wish I never came across these histories. How should one carry the burden of knowing? How should I move through the initial emotional response and toward a contructive perspective? When I look at myself in the mirror I know people might consider what we are doing here at Shanti Bhavan good. But I feel I contribute only a small part. There is still much more to do.
Count the mirrors in your home. What do you see?
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