*Critical Voice*

I don't know about anyone else, but after reading about critical voice I feel that I never really understood what a "critical voice" was.  Heck, I'm not totally sure I do now.  Not yet.  What I do know, however, is that every teacher needs one.  And that every teacher's critical voice will be different.  How I feel about a topic may be very different from how you feel about it.  How I teach my class my be very different from how you teach your class.  In Reading 24, the one about developing critical voice, the "Yes, but ..." questions are what really caught my attention and pulled me in.  They did this because, even on the first page where a few of the questions are listed, I thought, "Man ... I've wondered that same thing".  How do you know if you should do what you're told to do or do what you feel is right?  What if that means possibly losing your job when you have bills to pay, families to care for?  How do you know when you should speak up about the teaching strategies your school system wants you to use if you don't agree with them?  I really feel like these are questions we are never really prepared for during our degree programs, undergradute or higher.  It is where that critical voice comes in I suppose.  That is why it is so different from person to person.  As it develops, you develop the answers to these questions on your own: within yourself.