The Purpose of Education

Recently I read James Baldwin's 1963 essay, "A Talk To Teachers" in which he discussed the purpose of education. He stated "The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity." As educators, we often tell our students that 'knowledge is power'. As a classroom teacher, I remember countless times telling my students about the importance of education. I would lecture them about why they need to do their homework or why they should read a particular book. Yet, I can't call a single moment when I made it abundantly clear that the process of learning would someday allow them to the opportunity to question or make personal meaning of the very things I was teaching them.

These words resonated with me as I read Angela Thomas' article " Children Online: learning in a virtual community of practice". Using Wenger's model of 'communities of practice' as a lens, she described ways in which students were 'making meaning' of their world and themselves and creating a space for identity to evolve. Many times as teachers we will say " But I taught them how to do this...Why don't they do it?" We shift the responsibility to the kids for not 'learning' what we 'taught' as if it is their problem that they just get it. I was so struck but the holes Thomas poked in Vygotsky's theory of learning and the necessity of the "expert" other. In our own district, we focus on the use of Vygotskian approaches to scaffolding learning for our students-again, the premise being that WE are the ones who KNOW and our students are the ones who don't know. Yet it seems educators are the ones who are stuck when it comes to knowing what literacy learning is and what it is not.
We assume that a child with an open book is learning while the student on the internet is wasting time. We assume that all eyes have to be directed at us in order for a child to learn. "New Literacies" means looking closely at the ways in which students engage in literacy practices using technology as a mediator. If we are to truly engage in the teaching of literacy, it seems to me that we have to change what we think literacy learning "looks like". It is abundantly clear that literacy is about identity formation therefore we must understand the digital contexts in which students use language to create an identity for themselves. As Thomas illustrated, although an online community may NOT appear to be a literacy rich environment, in reality, "literacy is marked and mediated specifically through language" in this digital space.

In this era of standardized testing and the death grip of NCLB, particularly on urban districts, we moved further away from the very purpose of education, which as Baldwin so eloquently stated, is the ability for our students to "achieve their own identity". It is up to educators to transform any classroom practices that hinders education's true purpose.
So how can we transform schools and classrooms to allow for these "new literacy" practices to occur and be valued? I think it starts with a complete paradigm shift about what literacy learning really is and keep a clear focus on the very purpose of the institution itself. If we, as educators, don't begin to transform curriculum and teaching and learning to meet these new practices, then someone else will do it for us- which Carmen Luke illuminated in her article.

In Carmen Luke's article "What's Next? Toddler Netizens, Playstation Thumb, and Techno-literacies", she examined the impact of 'educational' software companies and video game media has already far preceded educators in framing what learning with technology looks like. In doing so, they have created a myoptic version of literacy learning with technology in the eyes and minds of parents. Her article was a call to action for educators to grab the reigns from these developers and take a critical look what, who, where, and how children are using technology.

I was particularly struck by two observations which, I had not thought much about, have a real impact on the students in my district. The first was the way in which these games present an Anglo-centric view of the world. It resonated with me when I thought about a recent video someone sent me online. It was a newstory about a young, African American teenager, Kiri Davis, who created a documentary in which she re-enacted the same study about race used by Dr. Kenneth Clark to make the case for desegregation in the landmark Brown Vs. Board of Ed. decision. In the documentary, young black children are asked to choose between a black or white doll. Most of the kids chose the white doll when asked which doll is "good" or "nice" and chose the black doll when asked which doll is "bad". If we know that marketing and products impact young children's preception of themselves, then I can only imagine the detrimental impact on identity, African American students in particular, if the online and digital media exclude them from this evolving media. The second observation made by Luke which really hit home was her conversation about access to technology. Which begs the question... What good is the superhighway, if you all you have is a bus pass? I think these are crucial considerations as we re-examine what learning in this new digital environment for urban, mostly African American, students.