Tell The Children The Truth

I arrived at work today, and like I do every morning, I began my day by reading a few articles before I started my prepping and teaching. I am lucky because I work at a private international school. I have my own Mac (albeit a bit outdated) computer. I have music playing, a few sofas and plants in my classroom. The kids are little angles that cower under a stern voice or sideward glance. This Shangri La I now experience is not where I started my career in education. I started teaching at a local school in Mozambique. At one point, I was teaching 48 kids under a tree with only a piece of chalk and a cracked, portable chalkboard. I then moved to teach in the Bronx, which was surprisingly more difficult, because of the constant fights, lack of security, and overall degeneration of the NYC school system.

But this post is not meant to be about my trials and tribulations in teaching. It is about one of the best articles I have read in a long time. It is by Bill Moyers, a man I am learning to respect more and more everyday. In this speech he made to teachers in San Diego, Moyers not only exposes some of the glaring ailments of the US educational system, but he goes deeper to expose that the problems of America are based in class and an ineffectve system of capitalism that no one seems to want to acknowledge.

He very accurately states, “Over the last 30 years a disciplined, well-funded and closely-coordinated coalition of corporate elites, power-hungry religious conservatives, and hard-line right-wing operatives has mounted an aggressive drive to dismantle the public foundations and philosophy of shared prosperity and fairness in America.”

The article is long and dense and vital to our democracy. I urge everyone to please take some time to sit and read it carefully. Then please comment here on this blog about what to do next; for those of you with whom I am debating the merits of the Democratic Party, please note that he rarely makes this a bi-partisan issue, so please don't say that we must go out and vote for a Democrat! The problems of America are not based on Capitol Hill, they are drenched in the corrosive effects of a capitalist system perpetuated by greed. The entire system stinks. I hope this article highlights what i am talking about. I have selected a few passages from the speech to whet your appetite, so enjoy!

Let’s be honest about what we mean by “urban education.” We are talking about the poorest and most vulnerable children in America – kids for whom “at risk” has come to describe their fate and not simply their circumstances.

Their education should be the centerpiece of a great and diverse America made stronger by equality and shared prosperity. It has instead become the epitome of public neglect, perpetuated by a class divide so permeated by race that it mocks the bedrock principles of the American Promise.A nation that devalues poor children also demeans their teachers. For the life of me I cannot fathom why we expect so much from teachers and provide them so little in return.

In 1940, the average pay of a male teacher was actually 3.6 percent more than what other college-educated men earned. Today it is 60 percent lower. Women teachers now earn 16 percent less than other college-educated women. This bewilders me.

If you are wondering if I often feel a strangling sense of guilt for teaching rich kids instead of the ones who really "need" me, I do. But I have justified it to myself by saying that education needs to be effective in all classes. So when Moyers says,

Teach your kids they don’t have to accept what they have been handed. Teach them they are not only equal citizens under the law, but equal sons and daughters – heirs, everyone – of that revolution, and that it is their right to claim it as their own. Teach them to shake the torpor that has been prescribed for them by calculating elders and ideologues. Teach them there is only one force strong enough to counter the power of organized money today, and that is the power of organized people. They are waiting for this message; the kids in your schools have been made to feel as victims, powerless, ashamed, inferior, and disenfranchised. Tell them it’s a great big lie – despite their poverty, circumstance, and the long odds they’ve been handed, they have the power to make the world over again, in their image.

I feel it is just as important to teach the other side that,

...they shouldn’t accept what they have been handed. Teach them that there are others in the world who are not only equal citizens under the law, but equal sons and daughters – heirs, everyone – of our revolutions, and that it is their right to claim it as their own. Teach them to question the torpor that has been afforded them by calculating elders and ideologues. Teach them there is only one force strong enough to counter the power of organized money today, and that is the power of organized people. And if they are not careful, they may be on the other end of a populace revolution. They need this message; the kids in my school have been made to feel that they are immune to feeling powerless, ashamed, inferior, and disenfranchised. Tell them it’s a great big lie – despite their money, circumstance, and the easy life they’ve been handed, they have the obligation to make the world a more equal place.

You see children are not born money grubbing CEOs of major global corporations. They learn these skills in schools, designed to turn out the next generation of “global powerbrokers.” If as teachers, however, we feel it is out duty to help educate the next generation of young people to help us build a sustainable, peaceful world, we must teach as many kids, from as many different countries, classes, and races as possible.

Speaking of work, I need to get to some of mine that is piling up on my desk. I start teaching Ann Frank next week, and there is a lot to prepare for.

Here is the article in full.

Coincidently, as I was reading this article, I was listing to a little Bob Marley and this song seemed strangely apropos. So if you have it, play it as you read: (Every year I do a small unit on music appreciation and the power of lyrics to shape the world. I use songs by Tupac, Bob Dylan, The Clash and more. Babylon System has proven to be a favorite from Mozambique, to The Bronx, and now here in Asia. I guess kids like the idea of being told the truth, and then told to rebel. Thank god someone does!)

We refuse to be
What you wanted us to be;
We are what we are:
That's the way (way) it's going to be. If you don't know!
You can't educate I
For no equal opportunity:
(Talkin' 'bout my freedom) Talkin' 'bout my freedom,
People freedom (freedom) and liberty!
Yeah, we've been trodding on the winepress much too long:
Rebel, rebel!
Yes, we've been trodding on the winepress much too long:
Rebel, rebel!

Babylon system is the vampire, yea! (vampire)
Suckin' the children day by day, yeah!
Me say: de Babylon system is the vampire, falling empire,
Suckin' the blood of the sufferers, yea-ea-ea-ea-e-ah!
Building church and university, wo-o-ooh, yeah! -
Deceiving the people continually, yea-ea!
Me say them graduatin' thieves and murderers;
Look out now: they suckin' the blood of the sufferers (sufferers).
Yea-ea-ea! (sufferers)

Tell the children the truth;
Tell the children the truth;
Tell the children the truth right now!
Come on and tell the children the truth;
Tell the children the truth;
Tell the children the truth;
Tell the children the truth;
Come on and tell the children the truth.

'Cause - 'cause we've been trodding on ya winepress much too long:
Rebel, rebel!
And we've been taken for granted much too long:
Rebel, rebel now!

(Trodding on the winepress) Trodding on the winepress (rebel):
got to rebel, y'all (rebel)!
We've been trodding on the winepress much too long - ye-e-ah! (rebel)
Yea-e-ah! (rebel) Yeah! Yeah!

From the very day we left the shores (trodding on the winepress)
Of our Father's land (rebel),
We've been trampled on (rebel),
Oh now! (we've been oppressed, yeah!) Lord, Lord, go to