Forest Lessons, No 7

An anarch's chronicle of public education.

I turned a corner this week. "Prodigal" can tell you more.

It’s a queer thing, classically speaking. A bubbling brook runs through the back of my head. Calm. Clear. Waiting. I can go there whenever I want. Relax. Commune. It’s hard to explain, though I’ll probably try the rest of my life. I hope to bring more people there. Show them the way at least to their own spot.

Speaking of which, this Friday I asked my students if the world was stupid.

“Yes!”

Are there a lot of stupid people in the world?

“Yes!”

None of you are stupid. But you could be. School sucks. I get it. But you’re very lucky that our place holds remnants of what came before. I’m talking about humanities. What school used to be, before teachers got stupid. Back in my day.

I’m asked why schools stopped doing it properly. Wasn’t profitable by which I mean total bullshit.

Philosophy, religion, history, language arts, performing and visual arts. My place is missing the first two, but we talk about them in the others. I can’t attest to the quality of all the classes, but I know mine is on point. I also do debate, STEM, and theatre. Might start film club. I implored the children to do themselves a favor and get on stage at least once before they walk the final mile at graduation.

To hell with what the audience thinks. Jump off the cliff.

The point is at one time education was about making you a well rounded citizen. An interesting person. A human being. Not some goddamn paper pusher in an office somewhere wasting their days. You can do great things. Kings and queens, some of you. If not, be in control of your life. The boss of your life. Good Americans who can’t be told what to do.

Can’t be forced what to do. Unless you fuck up. Now. Here. In this moment.

Progress reports are due this week. I want to reach everyone, so the folks doing well I send after the LEX VISIGOTHORUM. Leaf through it. Look at the weird stuff. If you were in law school, you’d probably have to read the whole thing. Listen to your dear old Uncle Eddie Gibbon as quote in the S.P. Scott’s preface.

Laws form the most important part of a nation’s history.

The Visigoths stopped walking, settled down, learned Latin, and wrote the history of their people. Go. Listen to the dead. No talking. It’s rude to stare. Write about what you found. Some students do, some don’t. It’s fine.

For the folks doing not so well, for the not-yet-stupid, I took their grades and beat them. Over a dozen deeper-than-they’re-used-to conversations across the course of the day. Got inside their head. Ripped something out. One is a home schooler which I found really meant “no schooler.”

I hate the fact it took me over three months to learn that.

It’s OK. We’ll be fine. This kid can kinda read. He’s socialized at least. Seems to have intelligence. We talked about his life on the farm, how he spent his days. I asked if he was worried about his future.

“A little.”

I leaned forward.

“You tell anyone I swore in front of you and I’ll deny it. OK?”

He nodded.

“You’ll be fucking fine.”

His eyes narrowed in that way they do when a young man finds his courage. We talked some more. I’ll figure something out. Give him some ideas. Get him something to help through the next four years. Told him about all the guys I knew from backgrounds like his who are absolutely brilliant men. School isn’t everything. Your work effort is. He took a look at what the Visigoths left behind. Liked exploring it on his own.

Pray for him.

OK, let’s zoom back out. All these kids have a chance, just like any of us, to take advantage of anything even remotely like humanities offered. Can’t get it at school? Find it yourself.

The stars won’t wait forever.

So neither will you.

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Thanks for reading this week’s Forest Lessons! This is a regular feature of The Partisan where I make sense of the school week. That’s right! When I’m not acting the fool on Notes I teach social studies to high school freshman at a Florida public high school. Yeah, I know. Schools are a mess. I can’t fix that, but I can save a few before I’m gone. Like what I’m doing? Consider subscribing.

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