A Biest-of-a Book

Biesta, is a difficult to read philosopher. My opinion of him is that he is pessimistic, traditional with conservative tendencies, very set in his ways and bias. Then again, I like to think critically about what I read and poke holes in other people’s philosophies and ideas. Granted, I don’t have the same set of experiences or pieces of paper with my name awarding me degrees as he does but I do think that he needs to open up his mind a little bit. I feel like Biesta contradicted himself when he said in his chapter on communication that communication and learning involved actively participating as a part of communicating. Then the very next chapter he gives his very bias opinion on the constructivist method and how he thinks it is ruining education when what constructivists are trying to promote is participating in communication with group and discussions in order to learn. That being said, I agree with some points that he makes. His views on objectivity and subjectivity, once one understand what he is trying to bring across, make good points. In some classrooms, students are treated more like objects than people. Objects cannot learn, subjects can however think for themselves and are better equipped to present their ideas, defend their logic and learn. Once again though I go back to Biesta’s chapter on teaching. He not only rebuffed the constructivist approach to teaching he also put forth a good word for the traditional way of teaching saying something about how it is good for teachers to actually teach, but to just stand at the front of the class and teach in a traditional method, the students then become objects and lack the subjectivity that he argued for in his first chapter. There also doesn’t seem to be a medium or balance in Biesta’s views, it is either one way or the other. This book made me really think about what I wanted as a teacher, how I want to teach, many of my views were reinforced by Biesta putting them down so much but that partly has to do with the fact that he doesn’t account for different subject areas. Different areas of academics may respond to one teaching style better than another. Still, the book really inspired me to think about subjectivity and how I can bring that into my classroom without turning my students into objects or worse, dogs who just obey blindly without questioning anything. I think that although I might feel bad if my students were to question me, in the end of it I would be glad to see them questioning me because it means they are learning to think for themselves and not just rely on what I say because I am the teacher.