i understand power as situated, rather than a stream, a foucaultian
notion, and that the individual is always in a position to exercise
degrees of power - retention proceedings usually begin with the teacher,
though sometimes with the parent. an interesting study out of Boulder
indicated that the more rigid a teacher's beliefs were, the greater the
chance of a child being retained.
in response to an earlier posting of yours, when my third graders
complain about bad situations, my next step is one of, i hope,
compassionate curiosity. and i don't know if this step is the step of a
teacher so much as it is the step of one caring human being for the plight
of another caring human being. for a child to learn - for anyone to
learn, even a phd candidate - the environment needs to be nurturing and
supportive - what Krashen refers to as the affective filter - where the
learner feels safe.
phillip