Common Sense Reflection

Common sense is different for everyone due to how they are raised and also the way that their culture shapes their ideologies. Through-out the first 2 pages the viewer gets to see how the author’s common sense was challenged, and it took him a while to shape how he viewed meals, privacy, water, time, and other daily aspects in life in Nepal. Schooling was tremendously different with what he had experienced in the United States of America. The students only cared about the end of the year test, and therefore he was told by students to just stick to the textbook and not to waste a day on any other activities. He was also told to hit kids if they were being too loud and obstructive, one kid even brought in a big stick and gave it to Kumashiro. He never experienced anything like that in USA and it was very surprising when even the kids were telling him to discipline them to that extent. The peace corps wanted him to bring the ideas of USA stylistic of teaching to Nepal, which in a way is ethnocentric to believe that your style of teaching is superior to another countries, and is also oppressive in manner.

It is important to pay attention to common sense for several reasons. Firstly, people from different backgrounds and cultures will have different practices and viewpoints that were molded by the way they were raised, this will create different common sense ideas for them. Understanding that people have different views on what common sense is, is a crucial part of being a teacher. This is so crucial because if a teacher does not realize this, and treats everyone like a certain idea is common sense, it can create conflict and in some cases hinder a students ability to learn and strive. for example, by Kumashiro trying to push the way he was taught in USA, it created conflict between the students and the students would teach themselves the next lessons because they could not get behind in their learning.

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