In a message dated 9/9/2001 10:57:47 AM Central Daylight Time,
mowen@rem.bangor.ac.uk writes:
> As a teacher I do not sell anything. We are not involved in any form of
> commodification. The student is expected to be more than a receiver of a
> service, they are not consummers, customers or clients. Things should not
> be reduced to commodity exchange. It is inherently a capitalist way of
> seeing the world. It loses sight of other ways of interpreting social
> relations.
>
Martin,
I agree with you that as a teacher I am not interested in selling anything
either. However, as I have stated prior in the person/context relationship
paradigm it is fair to say that sometimes the "student"(I still take offense
at calling those not engaged in learning students, and if you are in a public
education setting Martin you know the seat fillers I am referring to) will
look at the education environment as a marketplace type setting, why should I
refuse the client his perceptions? In the person/context relationship the
Teacher must be able to make predictions based on past experiences with the
client as well as the culture and history involved in the setting service is
being delivered. By accepting the perceptions of the client I can be of
better service. If I am not seen as helpful by the clients they will
sometimes go away and I am left wondering how I could have better presented
options so they would have stuck around and found success in some activity.
Sometimes they come back. Often they graduate and become successful and then
I am proud when they come back. Still I pray for the few who drift off and
don't take seriously the opportunities made available. It is the seriousness
of whether my students address their needs and look to understand why it is
they haven't been successful that drives my need to be adamant about the use
of client as a term to describe those who attend the program I teach at.
Many times they have been prodded and poked as test subjects and then told
the programs adults assigned them to were failures so by noone's fault of
course you are now held accountable for all your actions even though you have
never had any adult provide a model for how to be responsible. Client gives
the person ownership in the process. Client suggests that the person can
advocate for oneself. Advocacy has to do with saying services were or were
not provided. If a teacher is unwilling to have the person with whom one is
working critique the service then what is that teacher afraid of?
eric
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