Reposted from The Nook Blog
The following image and images like it have been bouncing around Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. In such posts, the reader/viewer is struck at an emotional level while appearing to be a rational question to a specific issue. But, the image, the question, and the entire context of this “problem” point to a deeply embedded and insidious pattern of education in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This post can grab you emotionally and get you to make a definitive decision about the issue of cell phones in classrooms. Because is states “share if you agree!” and the post continues to repeatedly make its rounds, one must assume that viewers agree that teachers must take away student cell phones while they are in the classroom. And, as pictured in the post, the students seem to be quite compliant with the teacher’s mandate.
However, this “issue” of cell phones is not quite so simple. In fact, this post points to a much more complex set of contexts, issues, and patterns of schooling and society than one may think. But, we all have been “processed” by the same contexts and patterns of schooling. As a result, we look at this photo and it feels familiar. The patterns of response are ingrained in our thinking. And, we automatically know –whatever that is– “right” from “wrong.”
Hmmm…. And, this situation is what frightens me the most.
Schools in this country have been designed — for well over a century — to produce compliant, conforming, and obedient adults who do not question authority and who have been “educated ” just enough to function in society as a worker and to be easily influenced and manipulated “voter.” The power elite — politicians and big money brokers — have never wanted a society of deep and critical thinkers, who have been well-educated. Such people are a threat to their holding onto money, power, and control.1
Schools have not been designed to teach children how to participate in a democracy. Nor have they been designed to develop children’s innate intelligence and abilities to think deeply, complexly, creatively, critically, independently, and interdependently. They are not taught to care, empathize, develop a strong and deep sense of integrity, and understand other people across an array of wonderful differences. Schools — and let me state right here that it is NOT the fault of most teachers who are subject to the same dysfunctional pressures as children — have failed our students and our countries.
Underneath this schooling agenda is an agenda geared to support authoritarianism. From the beginning, the hidden curriculum of schools focused on the rules and nature of authoritarianism. The “explicit” curriculum promoted the teaching of fragmented and decontextualized bits of information, while portraying itself as rigorous, deep, and extensive. Such a portrayal was “enhanced” by curriculum standards, high-stakes testing, and accountability. But, the bottom line of this entire approach to education has been to keep our population dumbed down. And, again, the “blame” is not with the students or people who have been dumbed down by the educational system. Our entire society functions as a support system for the system of dumbing down. Such processes of dumbing down and rewarding those who have succeeded in that system are difficult obstacles to overcome.
As is evidenced in the photo, above, people immediately are drawn into agreeing with the teacher depicted in this scenario. We assume that teachers are the authorities over knowledge, behavior, and thinking. We have been unwittingly taught to behave, obey, conform, comply, and keep our noses clean.
The authoritarian approach only creates further issues. Such approaches undermine and break relationships that are so vital to creating classroom communities, where students can learn how to participate in a democracy. And, where they can learn to care for others, to question and explore all kinds of ideas, and to develop identities of creators of knowledge through the arts, sciences, and humanities, if we care to separate these inseparable ways of knowing. Authoritarian approaches promote distrust, resentment, and hatred. These approaches undermine the development of responsibility, initiative, caring for others, and so forth.
If phones are seen as a problem, the problem is much more extensive and complex than the phones. In a democratic classroom community, any problem that arises is a problem for the community. Of course, if this were a real classroom community, where students had a sense of ownership over and responsibility for the community, the problem such as phones probably would not arise in the first place. But, if it did, the problem would have to be discussed and remediated in some way by the entire group or classroom community.
Authoritarianism is threatening our country as we read this blog post. And, much of the “welcoming” of authoritarianism has its roots in schools, as we’ve just discussed. It’s not a big leap from growing up in a mini-authoritarian culture to feeling comfortable in a larger authoritarian context.
If we create classrooms and schools as caring, thoughtful, democratic communities, we just might produce citizens who resist authoritarianism and fascism.
Footnote
1 Gatto, J. T. (2002). Some lessons from the underground history of American education. In R. Kick (Ed.), Everything you know is wrong: The disinformation guide to secrets and lies (pp. 274–287). New York: The Disinformation Company.