I Won't Learn From You!

Kohl, H. (1992) I won't learn from you! Thoughts on the role of assent in learning, Rethinking School 7(1): 16-17,19

This articles discusses how some stupid don't lack the abilities to learn and succeed and haven't failed to learn, but actively choose not to learn. The first example in the article discusses how a grandparent refuses to learn English because then the native language of his family may be lost forever. So he refuses to learn to keep an aspect of his identity. The next example was an African American student who never learned to read because his past teachers feared him and let him not do work. Every time the author would ask him to read he would throw a tantrum. Finally she took a risk and fed him the correct words to read and he chose to repeat them aloud to her and continued to read with her. This strategy worked because he was able to save face in front of other students and still learn how to read. Another example was of a student you refused to learn and also disrupted the classroom so no other students could benefit. This student was refusing to learn because of the racist and stigmatizing texts they were given to read. The last example was of a class of Mexican and African American students in San Antonio. They all just sat and stared while their helpless teacher asked questions and tried to teach. These students were refusing to learn because they felt that the school was racist and insulting to their culture. They chose not to learn to defend their cultural identities.

This article can really help all educators "see" better in their classrooms. I can really understand not wanting to learn something because it degrades your race, religion, or ethnicity. In fact in my 9Th grade biology class I refused to learn about evolution because as a christian I was very offended. Instead I wrote a paper stating my reasons why I refused to participate during that section of the course. In this case I was able to respect my religion and still work on a task in class. I think teachers should take more time to ask a student why exactly they refuse to do the work and look at their past experiences for an explanation.