I Won T Learn From You Sparknotes

Herbert Kohl’s, “I Won’t Learn from You” is a novel that explores the lesson in how not to teach. Kohl discusses in detail ways in which student decides not to learn and the motivation behind why they have come to this decision. He has created a philosophy that allows both teachers and students to work together to become the creators of the students’ education and their success. Teachers can continue to teach, however, students are only going to take what is being taught and turn it into learning if they choose to and see a good reason to. Often times, students have a good reason as to why they choose not to, and this is what Kohl’s novel is about. The essays within the novel are about the students who do refuse to learn what is being taught …show more content…
Those students who have been diagnosed as having a learning disability or disciplinary problems, and who appear to not be able to learn, may instead opt out of the system and rather put their intelligence and creativity elsewhere, outside of school. In the story, “The Tattooed Man”, Kohl starts off by telling us, the readers, before anything can be accomplished, teachers need to challenge the hopelessness that is felt by students. He stresses the importance of creativity, as well as imagination and adventure within all students, and believes that literature, writing, and music are all creative outlets that students can turn to. The third essay that Kohl writes is called Excellence, Equality, and Equity. The essay takes a look at the number of issues that surround the discrimination and racism situation that he has encountered while teaching. He writes about a situation he experienced while visiting a school in Texas and stresses the importance of teachers for knowing and integrating their students’ cultural backgrounds. Kohl also stresses the importance and wants to remind those who are teaching and those who want to become a teacher, that every student they come in contact with, their heritage and …show more content…
Kohl stresses the importance that for both genders, cultures, and all the students, know that their backgrounds and where they have come from are all important. He reminds us of the social injustices that are still within the textbooks in classrooms today. An example of this is the many textbooks that introduce us to information on slavery and how the people of Africa were just merely slaves. Nowhere in the textbooks does it talk about what the African American population was doing with their lives before they were made into slaves. Lastly, the final essay in Kohl’s book, Creative Maladjustment and the Struggle for Public Education, talks about how learning to survive with only minimal moral and personal compromise in a compromised world. He argues that often at times, the failure of the schools and teachers is pinned on the students, by dividing the students into roles. Whether they are good or bad, intelligent or dumb, have high or low potential; Kohl feels that with maladjustment of a curriculum, these labels that are placed on children can be torn