I was intrigued with the title of this letter. I have experienced anxiety when approaching a difficult task or situation, but I had never thought of that emotion as fear until reading Freire’s explanation. His focus, of course, is on the difficulties readers face in understanding text. I can imagine that all of us in this class have felt somewhat uneasy when asked to read, analyze, and discuss scholarly research that at first glance appears beyond our ability to understand, yet we have all accepted the responsibility of “intellectual discipline” and have stepped into those murky pages, albeit timidly, until we have come to a measure of understanding. I am consoled by Freire’s statement that “There is no reason why I should be ashamed of not understanding something that I read.” He asks that we not just give up, though, because the more we persevere the better we become at studying difficult text. I’ll have to remember his advice as I complete this semester!
Freire: Second Letter
Posted by: ctyson1 | February 2, 2008 | 1 Comment |
under: Uncategorized
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Do you remember the student David in the Deworin article on biliteracy? That second grader attacked those books and did not shy away from the challenge in front of him. That is a huge barrier for many students. They see this big book with its big words- a metaphorical mountain, and they shut down and give up. Where does that start? It cannot be nature, or those same children would never learn to walk and would continue to crawl on the ground. It has to be nurture. That negative self-doubt and fear has somehow been ingrained into their “Identity” at some point. There is a good chance that it was ingrained in a classroom.
By: jonschoening on February 2, 2008
at 6:37 pm
