Chris, I agree that we need to appreciate and acknowledge our differences and find ways to see each others as equal. This comment reminds me the end of Black Panther when he comments “We all know the truth: more connects s than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” Unfortunately, I feel society focuses more on the barriers and not building bridges between each other like we need to.
Author: Matthew Cheatham
Comment on Inclusive Pedagogy by Matthew Cheatham
Heather, I agree that there needs to be acknowledgement or ownership of privileges and/or biases before productive conversations surrounding race and biases can occur. We incorporated some of those conversations in our classes last year, but in general most classes do not encourage those critical discussions.
Comment on Paradigm Shift in the Teachings of Racism by Matthew Cheatham
Stephen, I agree that fear of talking about these issues is what is keeping us from having the important conversation. Like you said, today’s society is not necessarily in a position or ready to have these difficult conversations as our educators are not prepared. You are right, there does not to be change occurring soon, but as you have mentioned without our educators having the proper training or preparation it would not end well.
Comment on Can I REALLY Be My Authentic Self While Teaching in the Classroom? by Matthew Cheatham
I think you bring up some great points! I think it is important for us to try to be our most authentic selves when teaching, but can understand at times that we cannot be our true authentic self. I feel like it also depends on your audience and how well you know the students or people you are working with, that can determine how authentic you can be in your classroom.
Comment on Authentic Teaching by Matthew Cheatham
Similarly to Stephen’s comment, I am not pursuing teaching and can struggle at times in making my presentations and trainings engaging for the learning styles students on their level as I am not very creative either. We are all educators within student affairs, but those of us not in the classroom have to figure out individually how we can best connect and help our students learn through their experiences.
Comment on Being your Authentic Teaching Self by Matthew Cheatham
I can relate you a lot when it comes to facilitating the class for new RA’s and trying to be myself as much as possible so the RA’s could see us as people and not just their instructor. Also, related to your point with Freire in regards to being learner and teacher, I was able to learn from the RA’s through the discussions about what they needed from me as an RA supervisor. Teaching in the classroom is something I don’t really enjoy that much, but there is much to gain from the students in that learning environment.
Comment on Mindful vs Mindless: A no brainer by Matthew Cheatham
I appreciate how you connected this to coaching athletes, as someone who has played several sports and had some terrible coaches who could not understand how some player picked up stuff quicker than others. I know there are some people I used to play with that had their potential cut short because of poor approaches to coaching, the same way that some students aren’t able to reach their potential within education due to the education system not able to adapt to their needs.
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Comment on Is there really a dark side? by Matthew Cheatham
I can relate to you a lot in that when I hear someone say something crazy that only they could believe or think, I wonder how could you say that or where is that coming from. Coming from a STEM background into the field of higher education has made me become more open to others’ ideas, as most of the people I used to work with at least thought relatively the same. But, now I have had to work at making sure I am hearing and understanding what they are saying and their point of view as much as possible.
Comment on Mindfulness, Learning, and Education by Matthew Cheatham
It is very interesting because I had a very different experience in elementary and middle school related to standardized testing and didn’t understand everyone’s hatred of them until later in high school. As you said, every student is different and has different strengths, as mine were definitely not writing or success in english. I think there is a way to include mindfulness in the classroom, but only if the teacher works hard and changes their approach to education that mindfulness could happen. However, this would be extremely rare and hard to come by.
Comment on Staying critical on the positionalities and privilege of authors by Matthew Cheatham
I appreciated your openness and honesty in your reaction to the Obama’s quote regarding students dropping out due to lack of motivation and interest. Those type of students discussed definitely haven’t had the same struggles as other students from less privileged backgrounds and can take their experiences for granted much more than others. I am curious what most of those students do drop that have a privileged background wind up doing as they do have funds to possibly rely on more than other students. I will say it is good to see that it’s not all of the students from more privileged backgrounds as some do have more motivation or something to work towards as they don’t want to have to rely on their parents or family influence but make their own life.
