QQC 1 - Choices for Children (Kohn, 1993)

"The best predictor [of burnout] is powerlessness - a lack of control over what one is doing"

I soon as I read the word "powerlessness" I could not help but to think of the difficult world in which some of our students grow up.  In central Brooklyn, not only do the statistics tell of a lack of academic success (only 42% of students graduate from high school), but of social and emotional difficulties for children as well, with extremely high rates of depression and attempted suicide.  Students from the inner city not only experience a sense of powerlessness at school, where many educators do not offer kids a voice in what or how they will learn.  They also experience a sense of powerlessness in their lives.  The cycle of poverty in which many of these students are born does not offer a sense of empowerment.  It is thus even more incumbent on educators and school systems in these neighborhoods to empower students by giving them a voice in the classroom.  It is also even more insidious in inner city communities when educators participate in what Kohn calls "engineering of power."  In this case, educators are simply reinforcing the unjust social hierarchies by allowing students to think they have a choice, when in fact the adults are "securing and solidifying the interests of those in power."

Is it more incumbent upon educators in the inner city to offer their students choice and voice?  Culturally, how is this received in inner city classrooms? 

Geoff Roehm