IrishOboe

I’ve been reading John Taylor Gatto’s Underground History of the American Education and it has me thinking deeply again about freedom. In contemplating issues of freedom I came across a few articles of Philip Yancy (Christianity Today) that pointed to how God views freedom. It gave me this thought:

If God, the ultimate authority, does not demand our obedience but lets us choose to disobey, how can I, a human in a temporary teaching position, demand the obedience of my students?

It’s a shocking question to the circle of teachers I know. Getting the kids to do what you say is what it is all about. Gatto is right. Schooling is about teaching obedience, not intellectual thought. There’s just enough accidental education to keep the wool over our eyes. By “our” I mean most students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

By the way, I still love my life here. I enjoy my job, the school, and most of all the students. They still have an amazing amount of life despite the fact that Japan is even better than America at demanding obedience from the masses.

I hope this doesn’t get me fired!