Classrooms (Responsible Media)

Classrooms are a site of struggle between teacher and student. At their best, a teacher is a well-informed, politically correct individual who uses his/her vast pools of knowledge about their topic to enlighten and inform his/her students of the subjects within their field. During class time the professor would typically bring up a topic, describe it to his/her students, and then go in depth in teaching what it means, usually rehearsed. They often reference other media to support their points, usually books and famous works. More often than not these references are unfamiliar to the group of learners, who must automatically regard them as fact. In any other setting, this would be problematic. It is reasonable to allow facts to be delivered without citing sources within a classroom, when time constraints are applied. However, it becomes difficult for a student to question the integrity of the information in their learning environment if they do not understand where it comes from.

Like any classroom text, the general class itself can be broken down using the Responsible Media framework.  As already mentioned, the intent of a classroom is generally reliable. It is a site that takes information from real world sources, compiles them and then uses them to enforce understandings within the awaiting minds. Individually, reliability of the data is derived from the continual use of trustworthy facts in an appropriate manner by the teacher. This is more often than not the truth in any class. However there are always a few topics, which when brought under discussion in the classroom ultimately lead to the bafflement of each non-teacher member who tries to throw their opinion into the ring, as they become drowned in random, situationally irrefutable facts. Discussion is in vain in a learning environment where there is one, preconceived answer/opinion realised by the only person in the room who has any reliable facts on the matter. This excludes math of course, where there should be no discussion, because math is universal. That said, it is still up to the topic and teacher to make sure their biases do not corrupt the facts.

Humanities courses (and to some extent science courses) are at specific scrutiny here, since their “facts” are based on opinions and are therefore left open to interpretation. This means that the truth of their reliability, respectfulness and fair representations are open for debate. Witty remarks from a teacher in a classroom rarely have educational merit, but that is not to say they aren’t useful for creating a more comfortable learning environment for the students. For this reason, fairness cannot be defined without context, but it is assumed that teachers rank “treating their students fairly” as a priority. This justifies, and is justified by, sick days in schools, credit recovery courses, and summer school grades being used in university applications. It is also interesting how satire and respect must mix in a classroom to be considered fair. All satirical texts have forms of mockery, so if the parody is internal, it is difficult to gauge the appropriateness of it in a classroom setting, especially if it is student to teacher. If it is viewing slanderous (i.e. humourous) material in a classroom, then the blame is shifted entirely onto the teacher.

How well different cultures, ideologies and opinions are represented in a classroom is entirely based on the tolerance of the teacher. Students will always try to express their point of view, as it can be seen as a vehicle of learning, so how many of these views a teacher will allow to be presented before they hit their threshold is an integral part of representation in a classroom.  In a humanities class, if analysing the cause of rape for example, the teacher must be able to accept differing points of view and use them to build understandings for the entire class. In a multimedia creating class, different software’s should be taught, as they represent the diversity of the workplace. The individual classes and teachers must be aware that diversity is the most enriching part of school life, and the most effective way of teaching is examining different methods of getting from one thought to the next.

Overall, classrooms are a responsible media, they must be. They are endorsed by the government to be able to effectively increase the comprehension levels of the youth population. If they were to discriminate or treat certain students disrespectfully, this would go against their goal to educate the masses. This is why schools must be more and more inclusive, so they can apply the same formulas and programs to the most number of people. It is more effective that way, and it is less controversial that way. But ultimately it comes down to the individual. The quality of the teacher will determine the quality of the learning, and in multicultural society filled with satirists, pirates, and robot politicians, it is important that an inclusive environment still exists for kids who have few things to look forward to in the future.