linkronycity

First, The Pedestal's Shadow, on the inadvisability of glorifying teaching. It's a siderea post, so it's long, and worth reading. "On one hand, the hagiographic fantasy of teachers as saintly shepherds of society, on the other hand, the sick knowledge of how teachers function in our society as the gatekeepers of our class hierarchy, separating those they deem sheep from those they deem goats, perpetuating classism, sexism, and racism. Might that not have something to do with how people feel about paying for schools?"

(Sidenote: the sequel post, on the inadvisability of glorifying Western allopathic medicine, is even more worth reading: "I am on both Team Science and Team Medicine. It's that, unlike a lot of cheerleaders for Team Medicine, I'm aware those are two different teams.")

And then today via a random twitter user, who comments, "Teaching your kid Excel and subsequently undermining an entire school fundraiser is now my lofty parenting goal." I tried using a school fundraiser to teach my daughter about economics; it got out of hand, and I have a meeting with the school Friday. Need advice. I am one part amused to several parts enraged. Don't make waves, undervalue your labour, do what you're told. I understand where the teachers are coming from, and it doesn't have to be like this. It shouldn't be like this.

Both of these put me in mind of John Taylor Gatto's nearly-thirty-year-old essay The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher. "My license certifies me as an instructor of English language and literature, but that isn't what I do at all. What I teach is school, and I win awards doing it." ... "The first lesson I teach is: 'Stay in the class where you belong.'" And so on.

I don't have any sort of answer for "how do we actually get an educated democratic electorate," but I'm pretty sure that "school" ain't it.