JIREH A.

ALBAY, TEC

I Won't Learn from You!

The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn
is a choice. Learning has been a fundamental part of our lives. “We can learn many things
as long as we are willing to learn.” Willingness to learn and the learning process itself is
the biggest concern in the journal “I Won’t Learn from You” written by Herbert Kohl.
It shows how learning had been very difficult and how learning was influenced by what
we call racism. Is racism really the cause of not learning in the story?
As a learner I strongly agree to the observations of the Herbert Kohl that there is
no learning because learning has not happened at all. The story of Barry and Akmir is a
proof that learning has not occurred not because they are dumb or not capable of learning
but because they are not willing to learn. Will there be learnings to happen if the teachers
have noticed it from the start? The answer would be “Yes”. Things must have changed
the life of the two if they were able to notice that both students really do have the capacity
to learn. And it’s not that they are not capable of learning but they are making a safer
world for them not to experience another failure in life. It is mainly racism which is the
cause of everything. It is the one that made them feel that there is no space for them in
this world and nothing will happen if they will try to learn. Learning had been a
misunderstanding for all the characters in the story, it’s not to get away of what we have
or what we commonly do but it’s to gain things that we don’t have. I also somehow
understand the concept of the grandfather of not letting his grandchildren learn English.
But if I am on his side, I will not do the same. I might have willingly tried to learn the
English Language because it might be a way to eradicate racism among other cultures
and nationalities. If I were also on the side of Barry and Akmir, I might have gone with
what a normal student does in the classroom. I might feel insulted of what my teacher is
letting me to read but it could be a proof that the main concept that dark people are
dumb could be changed. I will prove to everyone that even if we experience racism we
do have this will in us to learn, which they don’t have. And lastly, as a teacher in the story
I will always go deeper in knowing my students. Learning might be hard for them but
knowing the reason behind it is the biggest contribution I can make.

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Now, we can deeply understand that people really differ from one another. The
way we think will influence our actions and the way we deal will influence our tomorrow.
Racism will always be a part of living. It has been a culture to some but making a way to
end it will create a big factor in one’s life. We think that there are really some people who
are not capable of learning but we have not thought that learning has not happened at
all. Not learning could really be a safer way to avoid making more mistakes and avoiding
to be put in a hot surface each day. Children will always have their way to learn as long
as they have this “Willingness to Learn”.

Wonder in the Science Classroom

In the journal “Wonder in the Science Classroom,” Andrew Gilbert and Emily M
Grey discussed about educating science to learners in a different way. There are different
ways of teaching science to students and the most effective way of doing this is using
the Queer Theory which could mean that queering science education through wonder is
a way to make learners learn more about science through their own wonders and find
learning be more interesting. The authors argued that educators must embrace the queer
fullness of science content and process in order to open SBSE to its fullest. They believed
schools nowadays are more focused on teaching in a cognitive way. This means that
teachers are somehow focused on expecting results that their students will be able
understand and know science in the way they should be and not in a way that students
will be able learn through a queer manner.
I can consider this article as a smart way to open the eyes of the educators on
how they should deal with their students when teaching science or maybe with some
other subjects. However at first, I was not able to understand what the authors of this
article is really trying to imply as they have some points in their journal that only people
who technically know what they mean will understand. For me, they should have gone
direct to the point when they started because I tried to read back from the beginning
when I started to understand what they meant when I was reading in the middle of the

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journal. Some parts of the journal are also quite confusing for me as I was wondering if
who writes this and that between the authors Emily and Andrew. With regards to their
argument about teaching science in a different way, I think that I would agree with them.
What I liked about this journal is that the authors have shared their own experiences as
learners and educators of science which made it easy for them to substantiate their
argument. Cognitive way of teaching is indeed boring and the retention of knowledge
may not last long unlike with the queer theory which may let learners learn by their own
experience and learn by their own wonders as it may have longer knowledge retention.
I really liked and agreed with their argument because I also had the same
experience with Emily of finding science as a boring subject because my educator was
not able to introduce it to me on a queer manner. In other words it is really best to
wander through our wonders. Though it’s kind of weird, it is still enjoyable. Learning
while having fun is really the best way of learning.

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Works Cited Page

Kohl, Herbert. "I won’t learn from you." Confronting student resistance in our classrooms.
Teaching for Equity and Social Justice 134135 (1994).
https://wikieducator.org/images/5/59/Kohl_I_Won't_Learn_from_You.pdf

Gilbert, Andrew, and Emily M. Grey. “Wonder in the Science Classroom.” STEM of Desire,
pp. 109–123., doi:https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331068_004.

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