Guest Post: Freeing Students to Make Up Their Own Minds

Judy Williams is the Writing Center Director for Unity College in Maine and teaches English courses there and at the University of Maine and the University of Phoenix Online. She lives with her husband in Belfast, Maine.

Judy is a participant in our online course, Teaching for a Positive Future. We loved this essay she shared in class about integrating the 4 elements of humane education, and she kindly agreed to allow us to share it here:

In my Composition classes, I choose topics that require students to read and write and think critically about the challenges of our times: food consumption/production; environmental impact of industrial vs. organic farming; racial inequality; the impact on formerly sustainable economies of other countries by decisions made by our government related to the resources of those countries, etc. The challenge always is not just to be informed, but to use knowledge as a springboard to action and to distill that action down into the contributions of an individual. Inspiring empathy is easy--the stories stir this in students, but empathy alone is nothing. I ask students to think critically and creatively about steps that they could take to solve these types of problems. We discuss what the stories call up in each of us and how we will respond to that call.

I think of one class where we were using Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as a springboard for discussions about food production and the treatment of animals in that process. As we learned about the way turkeys are unable to support the weight of their breasts because of the way they have been bred for breast production in industrial turkey farming operations, and the way chickens spend their entire lives unable to stretch out their wings due to cage constrictions, most students were horrified; but one young man's response was "It's just a bird." This type of response opens up possibilities for conversations about the assumptions we each make about our place as humans within the greater cosmos of life on this planet. The challenge always in this type of educational experience is to refrain from imposing my own values or steering the values of students in any way. If they are to truly become "solutionaries," it will be because educators have freed them to make up their own minds--honestly feel their own reactions without fear of reprisal by educators with agendas.


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by guest posters are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute for Humane Education or its staff.

Like our blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

You have read this article assumptions / critical thinking / education / global issues / guest posts / humane education / solutionaries / Teaching / values with the title Guest Post: Freeing Students to Make Up Their Own Minds. You can bookmark this page URL http://actuosa-participatio.blogspot.com/2012/02/guest-post-freeing-students-to-make-up.html. Thanks!