Week 1: The Problem With Commonsense

Kumashiro’s definition of commonsense is generated from his experience in Nepal in which, his involvement within the community-made him realized that commonsense is seen as what everybody already knows without having to question the existence, purpose, and how the ideas are constructed. To further explain this, commonsense had become a part of social norms where individuals normalize everyday events. In his experience as a teacher in Nepal, he learned that the school system sets a different standard for education compared to the US. Kumashiro explains that the education system in Nepal is textbook oriented that allows students to study right from the textbook. As Kumashiro tries to modify the education in Nepal, he realizes that the way that education is embedded in Nepal is different from what he is used to.

Commonsense limits the knowledge of individuals from repeated events in their everyday lifestyle that can be a danger to a group of individuals. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to commonsense because there are group of people who are victims from normalizing commonsense due to social norms; meaning to say that commonsense can be a form of oppression if not dealt with particularly to groups such as, “racial hierarchies, gender stereotypes, heterosexist cultural and religious norms, and legal statutes” in which they become marginalized because of individuals that have develop the idea of what they already know.

As an educator in the future, it is important to take these ideas critically in a way that commonsense will not be put to the side because it is beneficial to consider Kumashiro’s opinion about commonsense and how this will affect individual students in the future.