XplanaZine

1984 was a significant year in many regards, and not just because of the title of George Orwell’s novel. Among other things, it was the first year of democracy in Argentina after eight years of oppressive military rule.

I was living in Argentina in 1984. I was a graduate student at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and I had the opportunity to witness first hand how students handled freedoms they had never had before. I watched and journaled as they participated in their first student elections, held massive protests, and seized every opportunity to challenge tradition and authority.

Some might describe that year as fairly chaotic, but it really wasn’t for those on the inside. One of the forces that prevented it from unraveling completely was the professors themselves. They were much older and had lived through a number of government changes in their lifetimes. They had been involved in their own protests as youth and had opposed the most recent military government in their own ways. They may have thought the new democracy was a tenuous and too-good-to-believe gift, but they did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the students who were experiencing it for the first time. In fact, they did just the opposite. They mentored the students, cooperated with them on choosing times and places for University protests, and worked closely with student organizations to integrate the politics into the learning.

The teachers all understood the relevance and importance of the moment for the students. And, while not all professors participated equally, none gave any opposition to this student experiment in democracy.

In the end, that was the difference between a mess and a meaningful moment.

I’ve always been mindful of that year as I’ve worked with students. I’ve tried to balance big events and sociopolitical happenings with the educational task at hand. Whether the issue was student support for striking workers in 1988 or war protests in 2006, I’ve made every effort to use real events and real feelings to help students develop important critical thinking skills.

Of course, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t work actively with my students to find their own intelligent and personal voice. After all, one of the lessons I’ve taught in every class over the last twenty-five years is this — if you see someone doing something STUPID, you have a moral obligation to stop, point your finger in the appropriate direction, and say, “That’s STUPID!” Think of it as Responsible Citizenship 101.

Another thing I learned by living in and studying dictatorships transitioning to democracies, is that it’s often hard for people to admit that their own government can do really STUPID things — no matter how STUPID the actions may be. After all, this is the same government that provides for their needs and serves as the anchor for much of their identity. No one wants to believe that the same government is incompetent when it comes to large and important decisions or plans.

When it comes to education in the United States (my country), my personal feeling is that our government has made incompetent decisions and is doing some particularly STUPID things. Others may or may not agree with me, but whether they do or not makes no difference. My personal integrity requires that I point my finger and say, “NCLB (or another plan) is really STUPID!” To do so is my moral obligation.

As an educator, expressing my own personal and intelligent voice can help my students find theirs. It keeps me honest and helps me turn messes into meaningful moments.

I don’t know what the solution is to our problems. I like the ideas being shared about new stories and flat classrooms. But I liked Steve Forbes idea about flat taxes too and that never happened.

From a teaching and learning point of view, however, the actual solution is less important than our willingness to shout out loud that the current system is STUPID and that something must be done. Until we are willing to do that, and until we are willing to suffer the consequences for saying such out loud, we are will lack to common ground necessary for effecting real change.

Broadcast Information

podcast feed
i-podder