Blog #13: The Paradox of Oppression

Of the final reading: I loved the early part about how there must be a balance between showing students the ropes without hanging them from them; hence my title. Specifically, I am referring to the (half paraphrased, but quotes so I don't plagiarize) "Control of discourse in class reinstates oppression, it's necessary to provoke defamiliarization required for students to initiate ideological critique...scaffolding is needed to achieve more complex analysis [provided by the teacher] - BUT - this scaffolding must not impose the teacher's own beliefs in any attempt to 'sell' them to 'impressionable' students". This resonates with me. When teaching my students I do my best to help them find the answers themselves (via the Socratic method), but try not to come off as a pompous ass. I like the concept of offering students a critical question without a specific answer - allowing them the "freedom of discovery in the discourse". I also think that a good takeaway from the article is to always try and think about what we think about when we've thought of something.