Democracy has been raised as very problematic and this is
what I find extremely interesting because in my future profession I want to
know how to successfully create a truly democratic classroom. Saskia Sassen in
her video discussed the “tools and techniques” put into place to create
democracy which have been a “given openness” and a “given choice” but she
critiques stating that these “given” tools don’t necessarily produce a balanced
and equal distribution.
This is a great point and very concerning as a future
educator. In past posts I have stated how it’s very important to me in my
future classroom that all my students have an individual voice but her general
statements in regards to democracy have me concerned that I will never truly be
able to achieve this because it will be practically impossible to maintain
equal distribution. Her piece has made me come to the realization that my classroom
is going to be an experimental remaking of an informal political organization and
not til then will I know how I will be able to manage an as equal distributed
democracy as much as possible. This frightens and saddens me because it puts my
student’s voice and opinions at risks. True
democracy has been raised as a problem and the reality of even distribution
within civil society, networked and my biggest concern, the classroom. What are
the ways we can create a more distributed outcome?
This is something that I will not be able to tackle until I
have the grounds to experiment and I hate the term experiment because no
student should be a trial. I will need to discover what the individual cause is
in regards to my students that is holding them back from contributing and producing.
As an educator this is going to be a challenge because this preventive factor
is highly likely to be different for every student.
Varnelis, Kazys.
"Saskia Sassen: Networks, Power, and Democracy - YouTube." YouTube.
N.p., 26 July 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpw1GpHzAbc&feature=youtu.be>.
