Martin Luther King

 

Thoughts on the American Public Education – Bandages on a Leviathan

(This picture reminds me of Zizek on Suicide, but it has nothing to do with that, it is only a disaster spiral!)

I have little knowledge on education, except what I have from experience. My thoughts here are not based on any facts nor any theory of one sort or the other, but they are nevertheless my thoughts…

An ideal high school environment would not promote competition but cooperation. Testing would be near abolished, and the teaching system for different grade levels would be consistent, coherent, insightful, and relevant throughout. Organizational and time management skills would be promoted at a less superficial level (as they now are), and homework would be kept at an ideal medium where classes distributed the workload proportionate to each other. Sports and school spirit would not be as heavily emphasized; rather general physical and mental education should be seen as inherent to the schooling system. Drug and alcohol use would be entirely nonexistent, and bullying would be kept at a minimum by choice of the students not force of the faculty. Ethics, philosophy, religion, arts, literature, and other liberal arts/humanities classes would be to some degree mandatory. This way, stress caused by competition, testing, unnecessary learning, peer pressure, and bullying would be rendered annul.

School should become a more coherent system that teaches education each year in a well thought out methodical way (like that of Russia, China, etc.), while incorporating a greater liberal arts emphasis in the fields of philosophy, ethics, and religion (like that of most U.S. universities). Competition should be downplayed, not fueled – which leads to the likes of the Unabomber. Traditional orthodox Islāmic schooling exemplifies this. Schools should follow a teaching of science as that of Russia, which devotes multiple years to different subjects in a comprehensive and thought out way. Teaching as a profession should be highly regarded, as that of Finland. Ethics, philosophy, religion, arts, literature, and other liberal arts/humanities need to be revived. Physical education needs to be emphasized while general sport playing downplayed (we should go back to U.S. physical education of the former generation). Rote memory should not be promoted after age 7-8, as critical thinking skills are much more important. While under 7-8, children tend to absorb information, and what rote memory is important should be taught then (i.e. times tables).

The United States misteaches the sciences. The system, in general albeit the anarchy, tends to give a year to various subjects in high school – biology, chemistry, physics, etc. Students that want to go above and beyond (probably the top 5-10 percent) will choose to take a second year of one or multiple of those subjects. This is foolish. There is not enough time to understand even the basics of chemistry in a year, and by 12th grade one forgets what they learned in 9th grade (as it really wasn’t ingrained in the mind). In Russia, for example, one may have 6th-9th grade Geology and 9th-11th grade Chemistry and 10th-12th grade Biology, or something of the like. This way, each subject gets its fair share.

The United States entirely ignores the liberal arts and humanities. These subjects are the very things that advance a person’s interest in social issues and politics (perhaps to the disadvantage of the government?). These subjects are necessary – and so utterly ignored. An understanding of various religions is absolutely vital to an understanding of the world.We fear it being taught as we fear the occasional story of a teacher standing on the desk preaching the coming of Christ, but it is no different from teaching a government course where the teacher avoids politics in his teaching. I am willing to risk a news scandal here and there for a whole world of understanding. Ethics and philosophy are the same, and build morale, logic, appreciation of knowledge, and a drive for involvement. Likewise, the arts are necessary to give students a way to express themselves and vent , likewise building culture and community. By this I refer to painting, drawing, writing, acting, etc. Literature is similar, and if you ask me, a far more practical way to teaching English (rather than tests and timed writing, although essays are fine).

The over-emphasis on sports is a sheer distraction to what is more important and lets students who aren’t the best at particular sports fall behind. The over-emphasis drives competition and a sort of naïve school-nationalism, otherwise known as the bogus “school character”. Physical education, however, is useful, practical, and ever so important in our growing age of obesity.

 We live in a world of testing that quite literally promotes cheating and misbehavior. It tests one’s test taking skills, not one’s knowledge, nor one’s cognitive ability. And even then, by our own, measure, in the comparison to the rest of the world, we fail. That is a true indication of failure and embarrassment. We live in a system where competition is so fueled that right and wrong become just as blurry as successful and unsuccessful, which, by the way, is becoming increasingly and troublingly black and white (money vs. no money).

And finally on coherency. We live in a sort of educational anarchy, where various policies are implemented with as much arbitrainess as placing bandages on a Leviathan under a sectumsempra spell.We arbitrarily pluck out some class here and throw in a new class here as the times change, without thinking much about it at all. We have no foundation to our educational theory – is education to prepare for the future, to make a better person, to make the United States wealthier, to give more knowledge, to prepare for college, to teach science and computer, what? It cannot be all, as some contradict. Yet we try to put everything into one giant Goliath, and we inevitably fail.

Is there enough time to do all of this? There are only so many hours in a day to have people in school buildings. Alas, I do not know the answer…but perhaps the reason there is so little time is because there is so much emphasis on homework, extracurriculars, and sports. We need downtime and learning, leisure has been bureaucratized as never before. I wrote a bit on that before. Homework to me is absolutely vital for anything math, and perhaps for reading and projects here and there. But the overemphasis on study and crunch time is just asking for trouble.

The social conditions in school are the worst. The drugs, the alcohol, the bullying, the “fun”. I can’t blame any one issue or entity for this predicament, in fact I don’t know where to start. Perhaps it is the entire culture that needs a revolution, and that would need to start with the very education we speak of…. So perhaps we should start here, and see where it goes.

We need a revolution, and nothing less, to education. Bandages don’t fix a Leviathan. We need to sit down and rethink everything we are doing, as we spiral down a maddening path of who knows what to who knows where. And that is the most uncomfortable feeling there is- to know you are going somewhere, somewhere worse.

Rigged Game

Every day when I was five, my older sister would play teacher.
Her students were me, my stuffed rabbit and an American girl doll,
She’d line us up at the end of the bed
and teach us whatever she’d learned in school that day.

Now, she teaches ESL at an elementary school in Boston
and every week she tells me stories about her students.
Ana does not know how to read in Spanish, much less English
but she still wants to be a writer when she grows up.
Juan chooses to stay inside and study at recess
so that one day he’ll be able to teach his own brother.

These kids are good organs in a sick body.
In 2001, No Child Left Behind
gutted bilingual education.
Students who have been in the country for one year
are now expected to perform at grade level
on standardized English tests.
My sister is not allowed to instruct them in Spanish.
If the kids don’t jump high enough, the school loses money
Improving a school by picking its pockets
is like tuning a guitar by ripping off the strings.

Learning to read in a new language
before you can even read in your own
is like learning to walk while a pit bull is chasing you.
Like learning to sing with the conductor’s fist down your throat

This year, for my sister’s birthday,
I bought books for her students.
A poem on one page in Spanish, the next in English.
She is not allowed to help them read the first.
Their heritage is a banned book

Learning to read in a new language
when you can’t even read in your own
is like trying to heal a burn victim by drowning them.
We are telling these children
who have spent their whole lives in the deep end
that they’ll learn how to swim if they just float out a little farther.

In the 1980s, American slaughterhouses
began building corrals in curves,
so no animals could see the blood at the end of the track.
This is how we kept them moving forward.
In 2001, we began building the hallways of our schools in curves.
This is how we keep them moving forward.

You never learn, you fail the test
You never learn you fail the test
You never learn, you drop out.

I know, I am lucky enough to be one of the winners of this game
I was handed a head start
and a rulebook in my own tongue

but the winners of a rigged game
should not get to write the rules.

On the television,
some senator preaches that throwing money
at an “urban school” is like feeding caviar to your dog.
They just won’t know how to appreciate it
After all, if these parents can’t take care
of their own children, why should we?

Well tell that to Ana
who has my sister translate newsletters aloud to her father
because he, too, was never taught how to read

Tell that to Juan
whose mother and baby sister are still in Guatemala
whose father works three jobs

My sister tells me school is the most stable place in these kids’ lives.
She has been a teacher since she was smaller than they are.
but since when does being a teacher mean having to swear not to help?
Since when does being a teacher mean having your hands tied
as the schoolhouse burns to the ground?
We are leading these children along a track built in circles
as their lungs fill with smoke
telling them it is their fault
they can’t find a way out.

Forgotten Malalas: Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi

Abeer Qassim Hamza at age 7

Abeer was a fourteen year old girl from the village of Mahmoudiyah, southeast of Baghdad. Her family, and father especially, wanted her to get an education: but security concerns prevented her. When she did leave the house, she wore a black covering from head to toe. She spent most of her time doing chores and attending to the garden in the yard. There’s only three pictures of her I can find on the internet: one at age 2, one  at age 7, and one on her passport. At fourteen, she was raped, then killed. Her family, forced to hear in the next room, was shot dead after. To finish it off, the savages burned her house down.

I asked a friend to fill in the lines on what he thought about the first paragraph. He decided she was killed by Iraqis, probably because she wanted an education. She may have also dishonored the extended family, or left the house not wearing what she was made to wear. It’s a fair guess, considering Iraq hasn’t been doing well since the House of Wisdom. “Not this time”, I told him. Abeer Hamza was raped, shot, killed, and burned by a US soldier. Four other US soldiers were responsible for shooting, killing, and burning some of her family- including a 6 year old brother. The murders and the rape were premeditated, coordinated, and the result of failed attempts by the US government to give a damn about her soldiers.

The United States didn’t take this lightly, and the five soldiers have since been dishonorably discharged and each one is in prison – for at least 80 years, and parole only for a few of them. The attention, though, was all about the soldiers. See the Huffington Post: they only have one article that is even remotely about Abeer herself. The other several articles are about the savages: this time, Americans.

Her father, like Malala’s, like Nabila’s, was passionate for education and bettering her daughter’s life. Some soldiers used to flirt with Abeer, and she worried with her father that she may be attacked someday. Her father would insist, though, that “the Americans would not do such a thing.” After all, she was just a small child. He wanted to give her an education, as her male siblings were getting, but he was afraid, although he didn’t let her daughter know. At the checkpoints the girl had to pass through daily to get to town, she would have to get clearance from US soldiers. “Abeer told her mother again and again in her last days that the soldiers had made advances towards her,” a neighbor reported. Her mother was just as scared as the rest of the family: “Fakhriyah feared that the Americans might come for her daughter at night, at their home.”

She had two other siblings that weren’t harmed since they were at school at the time. But her parents, her, and a six year old brother were brutally murdered. We should learn a less from Abeer, of the spirit and the vigor she had while she lived. We should remember her father, who wanted her child to get an education, but couldn’t have it because of the risks. We should also think about the US soldiers who lived in constant psychological terror, from wars and actions unimaginable among those who live in safety, prompting them to heinous ways.

Lastly, we should realize why no one knows her. Compared to Malala, bless her heart, Abeer was attacked by US soldiers, who aren’t the ‘real’ enemies. Although she grew up in a rural Muslim area, although she was female, although her parents wanted her to get an education, although she was brutally killed by savages, she received little attention at all. Her only fault “was that she was a helpless little girl ,who was constantly stalked before her brutal rape and murder.”

SEE MORE OF THE FORGOTTEN MALALAS: NABILA REHAMN.

Forgotten Malalas: Nabila Rehman

Nabila testifying at the US Congress with a picture she drew

Nabila Rehman  is from Waziristan, a war torn region of Pakistan that has been controlled by the Taliban off and on for over a decade. She is nine years old and her father is a school teacher. She was almost killed by a rocket, not too long ago.They didn’t kill her or her father, but her grandmother was killed. She was killed indiscriminately, in front of Nabila’s eyes. Her grandmother had nothing to do with anything, she was a simple tribal Pakistani women. Perhaps that was her crime.

You probably have the image that Nabila was attacked by the Taliban for fighting for education. You probably have the image that her crime was being female.

It’s a legitimate judgement. But in this case, it’s just not true. The rocket that almost killed her was a drone. Her crime was not being female, it was being Pakistani. Her grandmother died indiscriminately as “collateral damage”, except that her death had no significance for the bomber.

She came from tribal rural Pakistan all the way to the United States to testify against drone attacks. She came with her 12 years old brother and her father, the schoolteacher. Her father came “to educate Americans” about their situation, about their plight. But there weren’t very many people to educate.

Her story is much like Malala Yousafzai: both are young girls who had aspirations in education in tribal Pakistan and both were almost killed. But there’s a catch. One was attacked by the Taliban and the other by the Untied States. Malala Yousefazi got near to a Nobel Peace Prize, Nabila Rehman is backing home living in constant danger.

“While Malala was feted by Western media figures, politicians and civic leaders for her heroism, Nabila has become simply another one of the millions of nameless, faceless people who have had their lives destroyed over the past decade of American wars. — Murtaza Hussain in an op-ed for Aljazeera “

Nabila’s tragic story of what happened to her by violence from western powers is almost entirely forgotten. The Guardian explains the tragedy well. But few people have heard it. Only five of the 430 American lawmakers that could’ve attended attended. Barrack Obama was busy meeting with the CEO of a weapons manufacturing company. Perhaps he was too afraid of the question: “Please tell me, Mr President, why a US drone assassinated my mother?”

 

SEE NABILA REHMAN’S FATHER’S ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

SEE WHY MALALA YOUSEFAZI DID NOT WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Why malala yousafzai did not win Nobel Peace Prize

On an off note, I wonder if she really does wear high heels.

Lux.