"An Educational Right for All Kids"

After having viewed the video on Critical Literacy with Dr. Allan Luke, the comment that keeps resonating in my mind is that “we underestimate children’s capacity to be critical at a very young age”. Is it because they aren’t critical thinkers or simply because we don’t ask the ‘right’ questions or immerse them into ‘right’ situations to be witness to it in action? Many of us (educators included) continue to believe that to be critical in the literal sense means to be able to read and write.
But do we consider that perhaps decoding is necessary but not sufficient to be critically literate. Or that making meaning is necessary but not sufficient either. Once again we need to put it all within social practise and daily interactions. Do we take the time to ask our children (students) what did you not like and why not? Or as Dr. Luke put it, do we ask them, “who would have liked it?”
I never really thought about us as a “text saturated culture”. That being said, we as educators (and parents) need to connect literacy with our children’s every day lives. Perhaps being ‘book smart’ is no longer enough (or maybe it never was). It is our responsibility to help them understand that all types of texts are “trying to position” the reader. Which way will you allow yourself to be pushed or pulled? Modeling and exposing to the ‘reader’ to simple questions to ask oneself while ‘reading’ is necessary: who wrote the text and why; what or who is missing; what is it trying to get me to do.
I really like the idea of “teaching the new basics”. As times change, society changes, people change and thus our ways of learning and teaching must also change and adapt. It is our responsibility (and the children’s right perhaps) to present them with opportunities to produce new meanings. Allow them to do constructive work, use technology, and engage all students (even those who have given up or are turned off).
Finally, perhaps something that I know I personally sometimes take for granted is the opportunity for ‘intergenerational exchange’. We don’t want to toss out the old ways completely or ignore those who are more experienced. There is value in all our community members; we all have the capacity and ability to teach others. I would like to end with one of Dr. Luke’s statements in the video: “professional capacity is the key to the system (not the test scores or the curriculum).” We are here for the kids. We owe it to the kids. Critical literacy is their educational right – all of them.