SED551: Post 1 - Campano

Because the author is dedicated to the idea that the individual experiences of students are important, valid, and a constructive constituent of capital-e Education, it follows naturally that he places his personal experiences as an educator at the fore.  “I suggest that my professional growth entailed learning to trust that my experiences with my students in the classroom could become a valuable intellectual resource.” (Campano 7).   In addition, as he points out on page 12, his own personal history is inextricable from his academic identity, despite what he was first led to believe.  

As a teacher, Campano learned that the stories his students carried as part of thier identity were just as “epic” as the ones he was ostensibly teaching.  “They were about survival, unimaginable loss, separation from home and community...” (18).  Evidently, he saw echoes of the curriculum in the lives of those he taught, and vice versa.  A not uncommon experience, but to introduce to his possibly guarded students the idea of telling those stories, and have them do it, is a laudable coup.  His phrase is “a pedagogy of listening”, and is appealing.

I like to read, but there is little more that I enjoy than hearing a good story told well.  I see his point, and I see the connection to seeing “texts” more broadly per class discussion last Wednesday.  At my school, the senior English text is a collection of classroom(ish) interactions with material.  Some are books and some are not.  Though it would raise the eyebrows if not the ire of those in administrative positions with administrative priorities based on administratively verifiable numbers, I like taking time when students say things like, “Mr. Curran, you wanna hear a story?”