My confession
I have a confession to make. I have been living a hypocritical "double life" the past several years when it has come to my work.
In early 2013, when I first plunged into the world of cryptocurrency, I became more firmly convinced of extreme libertarian arguments about the world and about economic principles. I realized that taxation is indeed theft and that everything works better when the government stays out of it. I came to embrace the idea that it's not the business of the state or other individuals to control the lives of anyone who is not victimizing others.
What a wonderful development, right? There is just one catch: I am a public school teacher. My salary is derived from the taxes of others. I work in a system that has established compulsory participation from young people in an institution established by the state, an institution sucking at the teat of the federal government and allowing that government to dictate the content of instruction and the manner in which students are evaluated. Public education promotes the civil religion of statism in everything from the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to calling the conduct of students "citizenship."
So, why have a I remained in the public school system until now, knowing that it runs counter to what I now embrace as truth? Why hasn't my career changed to reflect my beliefs and values? There are several reasons, none of which I find good enough to remain as an employee of the government education mill:
My experience and training are suited for it
I have over twenty years' experience as a teacher, and I it is what I am good at. I am not talking about taking the doctrine that the state tells me to teach and shoving that down the throats of young people. I mean that I am good at presenting information to others in a way that they can understand it and utilize it. It is hard for me to imagine me in another career that doesn't involve that in some way. So, while I have frequently searched for positions outside of the public school systems, I have yet to secure a job offer anywhere else. I previously wrote here about my attempt to go without formal employment completely and combine side hustles to finance my life, but those attempts proved to be insufficient to take care of my family and me.
The money is easy
It's a government job, so it follows that you don't have to excel at much of anything in order to hold on to your position. Mediocrity pays the same as excellence, and as long as you appear to be playing the game, no one asks many questions and you keep collecting a safe paycheck. It's not welfare, but it is still easy to get lazy and accustomed to receiving a guaranteed amount that is completely disconnected from how much you actually hustle.
I believed I could "disrupt from within"
I did this in a couple of ways. I spent a few years outside of traditional school districts in various charter schools. While they are "schools of choice" with more latitude on how they manage themselves than their traditional counterparts, they are still under state control and I came to discover that they only aim to do things differently to have a greater number of students meet the targets and standards established by the state. Most do not aim to actually prepare students for meaningful success; test scores and "college readiness" are still the driving factors of these charter schools. Therefore, the system was working against me at least as hard in those settings.
The other tactic I tried to employ was being a "subversive" within the system. I'd collect my paycheck, but tell my students the truth about the system that they were a part of and awaken them (à la The Matrix) to another way of thinking and living. However, while I may have had some limited success with individual students every now and then, the reality is that they have largely bought into the lies that they have been told since the age of five. Some respond by dutifully following the path set out for them. Others have already "checked out" of the aspiration to university and then career, but still believe it is the path to financial success and personal fulfillment; they merely have resigned themselves to the self-fulfilling prophecy of a second-rate life.
So, now what?
I have resigned my position with the school I am currently teaching at, and my goal is to find (or create) a meaningful way to teach and train others outside of the bounds of compulsory, state-run education systems. What will that look like? I am not sure yet, but as I explore those matters for myself, I am going to bring you alongside as I detail for you in coming posts why education as we know it is not only statist, but also outmoded and ill-equipped to prepare anyone for successful participation in the real world of the rest of the 21st century.
I also will open the discussion as to what does work, and how those things may be incorporated into models that students can voluntarily participate in, in order to truly be ready for navigating the economic and technological realities of today. Follow me and share your own experiences and observations along the way!