Does a fish know that the water around it is polluted? When there's a medium in which people live daily, it can be hard to see the forces which are affecting your life. This January I have just enrolled in my local university's education program... and one thing I'm seeing straight away is the very profound sexism which the women (even professors) in the program have towards men. When you talk with them or when they're lecturing, it's like you're looking through a glass wall; they're nice people - but they have a very strong stereotype about men in mind which governs their attitudes around them. I think this sexism directed at men is a problem generally in the Usa, but there isn't this rift between the genders in places like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, or Britain.
This sexism expresses itself as an aimless fear of males... for example, you can see that the woman will have a hard time looking at you in the eye, but will warmly address other women. And it also can be seen as an attitude where men are held to impossible standards. Basically these types of unreasonable people will move the goal posts, and so it doesn't matter how kindhearted or civil you are... they will always see you through the eyes of their stereotype.
Of course, the teaching profession in the Usa is primarily dominated by women. Women will teach what they know. No matter how much feminists will try to shout down those who are "talking about stereotypes" - what I see around me is that by and large women are seeking the life of an aesthete. They want to find a husband to share a house with, so that they can have a lot of time for themselves. The women then, as adults, have time to read, and to appreciate art, and to do all those things. They believe in selflessness and caring and sharing. And these are the values that they try to instill in kids in school. Unfortunately, this kind of thing does not prepare boys very well for their future lives as adults at all. Boys, by and large, are going to need to go out into the world when they grow up and be a part of the quid pro quo system of the economy. They are going to need to have the stamina to work 40 hour workweeks their entire life. There are, these days, very few older women who want to date younger men to be their sugar momma. We men don't have the luxury of being aesthetes.
As a boy, I was a devout student (and I use the religious reference on purpose). I believed in all the values that my teachers were trying to instill in us. I remember that middle school was a wonderful time for me, because all of a sudden, we were finally getting on with the task of being real students - something that our teachers had us only play at doing for the previous six years. As I return to the university, and immerse myself in this education program, and as I go out to do my field study at local schools, I reflect on that time of my childhood. I remember how I discovered, as a young adult, that the real world was a very different place. And I was ill equipped to deal with it.
What we need, is for more men to go into the teaching profession. I think that we need to have some effort on the part of community groups to get this happening. Young women have lots of support in this area - mothers and aunts and grandmothers encourage their young girls to consider this career. The only men who seem to enter early childhood or elementary school programs though, are folks who stumble in, after realising on their own that they have this ability to bond with kids.
In the middle school classroom the other day, I saw this same social effect I saw in my peers when I was that age. I saw that the boys were like ships embarking on a trip across the ocean without a keel or a rudder. They were all set to embark on their journey into manhood using the stereotypes of what masculinity is as a guide.
Back on the university campus later that day, I reflected on the fact that young adulthood is that time when reality comes to call, and these men realise that they can't act out in that way that they used to as teens - it just doesn't work in the real world. These men have a rebirth so to speak, as they embark on the lonely job of making a life for themselves.
This past week, in one class we've seen a couple of films on the history of schools in the Usa. The thing that strikes me as the best model of those we have seen in the films is the system pioneered by William Wirt in Gary, Indiana. Kids there learned by doing - and they were engaged in all manner of activities from swimming, to cooking, to doing the school newspaper, to mechanics, and all these other practical skills. Former students of that school system there who were interviewed had nothing but great things to say about the school. It became a model for educators from all over the world. Unfortunately, as is all too common in the Usa, there was an unreasoning pushback from conspiracy theorists who believed that the school was trying to "prepare cheap labour for factories" - there was a riot and that style of schooling was abandoned. Parents wanted their students to focus on book learning, instead. They all wanted their kids to go on to be doctors and lawyers, and such. These parents had absolutely no understanding of how our economy works. Consumers choose which things they will support with their income - intellectual elites don't make that call. There is no way to make a decent income as an artist, or a writer, or a musician. Consumers don't pay for those things. They go to the library to get books, and they download music for free off the internet. Consumers pay for household goods, and heating oil, and car repairs - so that's where the job opportunities are going to be.
I was listening to national public Radio on Saturday morning. Bob Edwards was on and he was talking with Carl Kasell about his retirement.They talked about early radio and it was all fascinating . Thinking about what had happened in years past seems to have caught my attention lately. Latter on in the show Bob started talking about Author Morgan one of the early presidents of Antioch College in Ohio. My interest in this person peaked as the program progressed. What interested me was that he was somewhat more than a traditional intellectual teacher. He promoted more of a hands on learning experience to go along with traditional learning. He believed in this with a passion. Students had to get out and experience the real world. This was part of their education. The College was suffering from a low point in finances when he came in. He reorganized it to include cooperative education where student had to involve other aspects of learning outside the classroom into their education.
As I did more research on this person I become more fascinated by what he had done in his life.
He became the first president of The Association for the Advancement in Progressive Education in 1921.
Set up a system of rural universities in India.
He was a community organizer in post war america and was deeply committed to community and community settlements.
His interest and work in creating communities caught my attention even further!!
He advanced a wide variety of cooperative enterprises and cottage industries.
Created a number of planned communities founded on the English Garden City model.
He founded two community organizations called Community Service Inc. and The Fellowship of Intentional Communities.
What is so fascinating about these organizations was that CSI was founded in his belief of the importance of small towns to the rapidly expanding urbanizing nation. I myself have lived in small towns and have come to feel that there is something very special about them that you cannot find in a large city. In small towns he believe provided places for people to experience cooperation, personal relationships and of course respect.
He founded FIC to promote relationships between communal settlements and the exchange of products between communities. They also sought the communication with the outside world and the creation of new intentional communities,
All this he believed was necessary for a positive American future. Thinking about the past can certainly be fascinating especially with a focus on what Author Morgan has done.
Is this the segment you listened to?
Npr's historical "this I believe" segment
He is a very fascinating fellow, indeed, from the what I heard in that essay of his.
You're very intrigued with education, aren't you, Jeff? I know you read a lot of interesting books - certainly a lot more than I do.
The thoughts that have come to mind in these few weeks of the term at the university are that the mostly female-dominated field of children's education is seeking to teach children two things: How to be aesthetes, and the concepts and skills they'll need as they go on into their next years of academia. In one of my classes, the instructor is modeling classroom exercises for us - and yesterday she was showing us a way to teach kids what nouns are. It's a wonderful orchestration which she laid out there - with the kids each given pictures that they need to stick under categories on the whiteboard. This gives the kids a chance to talk a little bit about their own ideas, and it gives the teacher a chance to address various kinds of ideas that he or she wants to - which have to do with the various laminated pictures that she chose for the project. Our professor suggested that in some cases, we might take five days to cover all the different kinds of nouns. In my opinion, it's cheating children to spend so many days of class time focusing on such simple concepts.
The other day I was observing a middle school class - and the kids were developing power point presentations to present to the class. It's a good thing to do - and it certainly has value... but again, the kids are spending many days developing skills which are only useful for the next few years that they're going to be in school.
Where are the real world experiences that they need to be introduced to? Where are the entrepreneurial skills they need to be learning? Where are the lessons that they need to have about living in a quid pro quo world so that they learn how to take advantage of the resources which are out there in the world, which they can use to build beautiful things for themselves and their communities?
I like the oral Arthur E Morgan essay that I found when I was looking for what you may have listened to. These are all wonderful values he espouses as an individual. And judging from the list of things that you mention, it appears that he did a lot of work to try to put those values into practice. Of course, one person cannot do everything. Those of us who come along later need to set our hand to the plow, as well.
Recently, I've been very intrigued with the difference in the way that people discuss things in the mass media of various countries. My favorite is Australia.
Here's a long list of audio podcasts from a public broadcaster in Australia - Radio Australia.
The values that Morgan espouses in his essay for "This I believe" really have not come to fruition in the Usa. They are, however, present in Australia, it seems to me. My best appraisal of why there is more honest intellectual curiousity and discussion in Australia is that it's because of their very firm censorship policies. There simply isn't a place there for silly people to make national discussions about important issues into a form of vaudeville. I certainly don't believe in censorship, being a person who thrives on looking at all the information out there, and thinking critically about it. Perhaps there are other ways to achieve the same effect.
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