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It’s Not Just the Cops
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6 thoughts on “It’s Not Just the Cops”
I’ve been seeing this too, Ben. There is a deep parallel happening with police. And the truth is, all American systems are steeped in white supremacy. I was a deputy for a while, a lifetime ago. There’s an ego trip and a power that is exhilarating. Being able to drive fast and lock up “bad people” is really fun. I know! If you ever met me in person you would never think I used to be a deputy. I don’t have a batman belt anymore, nor the stomach for the work.
The condemnation cops get adequately prepared me to be a teacher though. I was used to people hating me for my position; calling me names and assuming my motives. I learned verbal judo and learned how to feign confidence. One thing we don’t get as educators is qualified impunity. But to some extent we do -I have worked with some MEAN teachers. They never killed a child but they sure did make them feel stupid and insignificant. It all comes down to what someone is looking for in others. Are you looking for growth? Are you hoping someone will mess up? Are you able to use some empathy? It was like stepping into two sides of the matrix. I taught during the school year and patrolled during the summer- on a lake as a marine deputy. During the school year, I was part of the teacher Care Team that helped students -where teachers celebrated little victories, told other teachers to be patient because these students were facing unfathomable trauma… But then I would go to the sheriff’s dept. and hear about another “dirtbag” who did such and such. I even had a coworker who referred to his entire town and neighbors as “dirtbags.” I never heard that language with my teaching mentors. Could you imagine a teacher referring to all his students as “dummies?” In those early years I learned that I would rather work with those that wanted to find gold over those who wanted to find dirt. The first high school that I worked at had a 98% graduation rate. These teachers were so amazing, so encouraging but more importantly they were given the tools to help all kids. Each summer, on patrol, I tried to educate people I stopped because there is no mandatory education and many didn’t know they were committing infractions. I even taught classes to kids and adults. But the more I wanted to educate the more my superiors said to cite. I was done. It felt unfair to assume everyone knows every law. There was so much pressure to write citations and almost no pressure to educate. It’s as if you weren’t doing real police work unless you were punishing everyone around you. Wasn’t it Abe Lincoln that said any man can go through adversity, but if you really want to see a man’s character give him power?
Power is really the conversation at play here and what we decide to do with it.
The same powers that criticize teachers for never failing anyone are the same powers that tell police officers to write more court summonses. It’s these quotas that make everyone focus on the wrongs and not the good.
You’ll always find what you’re looking for.
Jenna said:
…it’s as if you weren’t doing real police work unless you were punishing everyone around you…
Also, and right to the point:
…I have worked with some MEAN teachers. They never killed a child but they sure did make them feel stupid and insignificant. It all comes down to what someone is looking for in others….
This is the part that I’m interested in. It’s the part that, when you stare it in the face, now that we see it’s face, which is a mean face, shows a face that shouldn’t be in education, and yet has been for a long time.
One of my earliest mentors before my first day in a classroom tried to read me the riot act on not smiling until March or April, etc. THAT is what has been taking us down. But how could we have been able to deal with it without SEEING that face of meanness? Derek Chauvin showed that face to us for 8:46 minutes and now that we have seen HIS face, and the so-different face of the man he killed, we are maybe starting to get a handle on this.
I ask myself, how could I have missed it until now? I’m feeling some guilt here. But I won’t let it take me out of the fight. On the contrary, I am feeling a new sense of purpose like I never have before, and I have been gifted with a way to teach that will allow me to MOVE on this.
What time is it? It’s time to start a ruckus. What kind of ruckus? The ruckus that is now needed against those teachers who don’t follow the Communication Standard, those who USE THEIR TEXTBOOKS AS WEAPONS. Oh yeah, they haven’t used their knee, but they have cut air off to a lot of kids, many white ones as well, with their textbooks and with their just plain incompetence at their jobs, intentional or otherwise.
It’s time for us to act, and not stand around. I’m implicating ACTFL in all this as well.
Maybe they’re not really so mean. Maybe the right word is unintentional cruelty.
But does that make it less cruel?
If you are reading this and don’t get the point, then figure out the point or remain part of a vast unnoticed problem in language education all over the world.
And bless your heart.
Unintentional is a good word.
I too, feel an urge like no other to create a world that isn’t afraid of the truth. It feels icky and sometimes defensive and shame-y to look at how we have contributed to the pain. That is a gift! Growing always hurts a bit.
One of my boys yesterday threw out at me that teachers have a good deal, esp. w COVID since all they have to do is meet with their students online and it’s all so easy. That’s the perception of an 18 year old. I told him that I would rather have worked at Jersey Mike’s sub shop for the past 40 years than do what I did.
There are teachers who earn their paychecks with an almost complete disregard for what is going on in their students’ lives, and who see their young charges as nothing more than incapable annoyances who could never compete with their five stars, those who take over the classroom and thus divide the class, labeling the kids who aren’t like them as not as good as they are. It’s all an unconscious, time-worn systemic thing, where classes are divided along socio-economic lines almost automatically by the end of the first week of the year.
This idea of certain students and teachers banding together to make a kind of subculture of superiority in the classroom, though it has been discussed here over the years, becomes now in light of recent events something I certainly want to explore more here. Do we let this kind of division, because it’s always been that way? Or do we step out of our comfort zones and make America great for the first time?
MAGFTFT
What if every teacher in the land became suddenly aware of how system racism works in their own classrooms? (And we thought our jobs weren’t that important…)
Has anyone heard any specific talk online about language teachers uniting consciously to find ways to teach a language that fight racism and bigotry?
I propose that we start a group of some sort with the intention of addressing that. Can’t think of a name for the group. Maybe:
Fighting Against Racism Together
No, that spells FART. But you know what I mean. I’ll bring it up with the Zoom group today.