Weekly Reading #8

" Today, every teacher needs to be a media composition teacher." (pg. 85)

" As a result, American elementary and secondary students do not have their full first amendment rights either in school or out of school."( pg. 96)

"A teacher who genuinely wants to support student voice may be at risk of being reprimanded or fired if his or her supervisor finds that students self-expression may harm the schools reputation or have other negative effects." (pg. 96)


I thought about these quotes strongly when I was reading this chapter.  There are a lot of things, as educators, that we have to be careful about saying. Not only do the teachers have to watch about offending the students and the students beliefs and culture but the students have to watch what they say around other students and educators. I strongly feel that teachers who have the same belief and want to support their students bite their tongues just to save feelings of others. Sometimes it is so hard to see a student voice their opinion and not be able to support that student. This makes some students feel alone on certain issues. Not only do educators take risk but students who step up takes risk of hurting others around them. We need to have a time where students can speak their mind without being at risk for humiliation or being attacked because of what they say. Reading through these quotes I thought about how true these statements are. We are very limited to what we say or the students say. We are very limited in the world in and out of school, to what we can support and what is stepping on toes.