SURVIVING THE RE-EDUCATION CAMPS II

Because school is not really about learning, ongoing teacher training, like the school system itself, often presents wild absurdities: this was my experience last Wednesday. Secondary teachers in my district spent the day in seminars that supposedly are designed to make us better teachers. My content area, fine arts (theater to be more precise), was grouped with two other content areas, public speaking and foreign language, that, fortunately, are not subject to George W. Bush’s “accountability” oriented standardized tests. The entire public school system in Texas is geared now toward this “accountability.” Teachers working in the tested content areas get some very specific and somewhat useful in-service training. Generally, teachers in the untested areas do not get such training. In short, after five years of teaching, it is now clear to me that my district simply does not know what to do with us on these state mandated in-service days.

Perhaps that’s why I again had to endure a folksy motivational speaker who both bored me and insulted my intelligence last year. She gave us the EXACT same presentation as before, the same PowerPoint show, the same handouts, and the same stupid inspirational stories. This lasted from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. minus an hour for lunch. It really sucked.

If I had more belief in the educational system, I would call this a waste of tax dollars, but because the system is so devoted to mindless routine, I would assert that everything’s working like it’s supposed to. The only glitch here is that the charade is usually not so obvious. That is to say, content, for both students and teachers, is largely irrelevant; school seeks to further a national agenda focused on the giving and receiving of orders. Sitting quietly and listening to (or ignoring) a droning voice for hours on end is the preferred indoctrinational exercise—punishing teachers in the same way that they punish their students seems to legitimize the whole thing. What’s good for the gander is good for the goose. I guess. Most of the time, however, these seminars have just enough valuable content so as to give the appearance of being educational; generally, there is about an hour’s worth of useful information for every five or six hours’ worth of seminar. Last Wednesday’s repeater, with NO new useful information, is one of those rare instances when the Emperor’s bare bottom is visible for all to see.

Strangely, most of my fellow teachers were very forgiving of the presumed foul up. Many of them didn’t have a problem with it at all, and loved the whole thing, even though it was a complete repetition of last year’s in-service day—I’ll never understand why people don’t see motivational speakers for the hucksters they are.

Sigh.

The human capacity for self-delusion is truly amazing.

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