Common sense, the expectation of knowing. The article “The Problem of Common Sense” written by Kumashiro touches on the idea of common sense and it’s problems. Kumashiro defines common sense as an expectation to know knowledge, ideas, concepts, etc, common to nearly all people without challenging or debating. Within the idea of common sense there become the challenges of how teaching and learning can be impacted.
The Peace Corps described by Kumashiro believed there is a common sense to teaching, “... good teaching that was informed primarily by how teaching was generally experienced, discussed and conceptualized in the United States… Good teaching was not something that we needed to learn; rather, it was something we had already learned” (Kumashiro XXXII). With the belief that being within the school system from a child to an adult had created a “common sense” on how to teach rather than further learning more on how to teach, creating problems. The “common sense” idea is problematic as those who do other than what is expected are, “... dismissed as biased, as a distraction from the real work of schools, as inappropriate for schools, or simply as nonsensical”(Kumashiro XXXIV). Limiting the purposes of schooling and ways of teaching, common sense does not tell of what could be done but of what should be done. “Should” providing the need to conform to what is acceptable in society, but also providing a comfort zone. Leading to norms and marginalization between students of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities etc.
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