Target the Inhuman Conditions of Life
A Buffalo Teacher
Just what is wrong with our schools? I won’t give you my list right now, but I feel sure that if we could discuss this question and actually get to the bottom of it, we would conclude that our individual and collective grievances and concerns with life and society have a common source. Let’s try to break this down a bit.
In the schools where I work, for example, many are concerned with violence. This problem causes fear, anxiety and confusion amongst people. Students, their families and teachers and other school staff are immediately affected, while the community as a whole is also concerned. People want to do something about it and invariably want to know why it is happening. Reasonably, people want to get to the source in order to find solutions.
One problem we face is that there is a lot of interference, static and -downright opposition to this path to finding solutions. For one thing, there is an immediate blame given to individuals, and consequently the issue is distorted to one of determining which individuals to blame and punish. Existing rules that pertain to individuals are invoked or new rules are hastily proposed. Afterward the problem of violence remains and invariably the different interests involved, youth, teachers, parents, administrators, and so on, are dissatisfied in one way or the other.
We can see that blaming and punishing individuals is not a solution since the problems remain. Solutions would involve dealing with the main cause of the violence — both in the immediate circumstances and the social conditions. Here’s where more interference and mischief making comes in. One effort to divert from the path of solving problems throws up its hands and says we can’t know why these problems exist, or even if we do know that they stem from a rotten social system, we can’t do anything about it. So the best we can do is to punish individuals by sending them away, isolating or jailing them, hurting them or in some way inconveniencing them — based on the “severity” of the given action.
Another effort to divert from the path of solving problems says that it is not the conditions which need to be targeted but attributes of an individual, like their attitude. The issue then is not the relationship of attitude to society but of identifying a particular attitude, branding it “the problem,” and crushing individuals that express it. The youth are constantly targeted in this way, with their just rejection of rotten conditions branded a “bad attitude.” Teachers are called on to enforce this lie and attack the youth, rather than join in supporting the resistance of the youth and channeling it in a way that contributes to changing conditions.
Our repeated experience is that one of the main things that is wrong is that those in power, and especially federal and state governments with the responsibility to meet the right to education, systematically oppose problem solving in general and solving the problem of violence in particular. To do so would necessitate targeting the social conditions of poverty and racism as a starting point, and the social responsibility of government to eliminate these problems as key to eliminating their expression in the schools. More repression, and the force and punishment used to enforce it, is just another form of imposing more violence. We as teachers have a responsibility to reject this direction and together work out alternatives. We can start by targeting the inhuman social conditions, not the youth, and by organizing together for our rights. Just as a small example, it is clear that teachers, youth, parents, would be unified by standing to demand immediate government funding to target poverty by guaranteeing food, clothing, housing and education to all impoverished Buffalo families. The funds are readily available by freezing debt payments and by refusing to continue funding the war. This is our way out of the situation in a way that assists everyone. So let us be guided by a program that starts by saying: Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Funding for Social Programs!
Just what is wrong with our schools? I won’t give you my list right now, but I feel sure that if we could discuss this question and actually get to the bottom of it, we would conclude that our individual and collective grievances and concerns with life and society have a common source. Let’s try to break this down a bit.
In the schools where I work, for example, many are concerned with violence. This problem causes fear, anxiety and confusion amongst people. Students, their families and teachers and other school staff are immediately affected, while the community as a whole is also concerned. People want to do something about it and invariably want to know why it is happening. Reasonably, people want to get to the source in order to find solutions.
One problem we face is that there is a lot of interference, static and -downright opposition to this path to finding solutions. For one thing, there is an immediate blame given to individuals, and consequently the issue is distorted to one of determining which individuals to blame and punish. Existing rules that pertain to individuals are invoked or new rules are hastily proposed. Afterward the problem of violence remains and invariably the different interests involved, youth, teachers, parents, administrators, and so on, are dissatisfied in one way or the other.
We can see that blaming and punishing individuals is not a solution since the problems remain. Solutions would involve dealing with the main cause of the violence — both in the immediate circumstances and the social conditions. Here’s where more interference and mischief making comes in. One effort to divert from the path of solving problems throws up its hands and says we can’t know why these problems exist, or even if we do know that they stem from a rotten social system, we can’t do anything about it. So the best we can do is to punish individuals by sending them away, isolating or jailing them, hurting them or in some way inconveniencing them — based on the “severity” of the given action.
Another effort to divert from the path of solving problems says that it is not the conditions which need to be targeted but attributes of an individual, like their attitude. The issue then is not the relationship of attitude to society but of identifying a particular attitude, branding it “the problem,” and crushing individuals that express it. The youth are constantly targeted in this way, with their just rejection of rotten conditions branded a “bad attitude.” Teachers are called on to enforce this lie and attack the youth, rather than join in supporting the resistance of the youth and channeling it in a way that contributes to changing conditions.
Our repeated experience is that one of the main things that is wrong is that those in power, and especially federal and state governments with the responsibility to meet the right to education, systematically oppose problem solving in general and solving the problem of violence in particular. To do so would necessitate targeting the social conditions of poverty and racism as a starting point, and the social responsibility of government to eliminate these problems as key to eliminating their expression in the schools. More repression, and the force and punishment used to enforce it, is just another form of imposing more violence. We as teachers have a responsibility to reject this direction and together work out alternatives. We can start by targeting the inhuman social conditions, not the youth, and by organizing together for our rights. Just as a small example, it is clear that teachers, youth, parents, would be unified by standing to demand immediate government funding to target poverty by guaranteeing food, clothing, housing and education to all impoverished Buffalo families. The funds are readily available by freezing debt payments and by refusing to continue funding the war. This is our way out of the situation in a way that assists everyone. So let us be guided by a program that starts by saying: Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Funding for Social Programs!
