Subversiveness in the Classroom

I read a book many years ago that shaped my teaching philosophy.  Teaching As A Subversive Activity by Neil Postman tapped into my rebel core.

Among the five classes I was teaching that year at Horace Mann Middle School was one extraordinary class of super-bright 7th graders.  Susie and Brandon, Elisa and John, Lupe and Jorge.  I can still see that class in my mind's eye and can remember many of their names.

It was one of those classes I didn't think of as little kids.  They used to ask me what I was reading and I'd read them paragraphs, even from Teaching as a Subversive Activity.

One of his points was this:  Every thing we do is an answer to an unspoken question.

Another was this:  Teachers should let students see the relevance of what they are learning.

So as I was imbibing that philosophy, I was sharing it with Susie and Brandon and Elisa and all the rest of them.  From that date onward, I never gave them an assignment that one of them didn't pipe up with "What's this assignment going to teach us, Mam?" or "How is this going to make us better writers?"

They made me accountable as a teacher. We all  learned to ask different kinds of questions.  As Postman said, the kinds of questions we ask determine what we learn.