Article One

Article One: What Education Is “Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the word a little.” -Tom Stoppard How lucky are we that we get to use words every day to express what we are thinking and how we are feeling? According to The Oxford English Dictionary, there are “171,476 words in current use”. There are a lot of ways within those words to communicate and connect with those around us. But, by simply knowing and using all, or just some of those 171,476 words, does that make us educated? Or is something missing? Do we have to have the right words, in the right order, as Stoppard suggests? How can we best use our words to nudge the world of our classrooms so that our students can go out and nudge the world themselves? I believe that English education affords us the ability to communicate, understand, and. Comprehend effectively. We need to be able to interact and respond to those around us, as well as our environment. As educators, it is important to consider several different types of learning styles, when thinking of our classrooms, as well as the students that make up those classrooms. According to Freire and Macedo, in their text, Reading the Word and the World, “The understanding attained by critical reading of a text implies perceiving the relationship between the text and context” (29). Our students learn best when we connect learning to the world around them and establish that context. This is how we first learned language and its meanings. As young children, we develop a sense of the world around us and start to associate that with words and meaning. Creating a space in our classrooms where students are able to bring the world they know to life, when reading, writing, and communicating is one of the most important things we can do. Providing context for learning, facilitating think time, and honoring the worlds and cultures our students come from, will aid in more successful knowledge transfer, better comprehension, and a positive Freire states, “Deciphering the word flowed naturally from reading my particular world” (32). Encouraging our students to develop and become more aware of their critical literacy abilities and applying those to their daily experiences and interactions allows them to develop a broader world view.