SURVIVING THE RE-EDUCATION CAMPS III

You may recall that I mentioned in an earlier post how I was subjected to a motivational speaker for hours on end about a week and a half ago during a teacher in-service seminar. I really despise motivational speakers. Their typical “you can do it” message ideologically tends to take the individual out of all social contexts. They add rhetorical support to the notion that if you don’t succeed, it’s your fault. Don’t get me wrong here; often, individual failure is, in fact, due to lack of individual effort. More often, however, individual failure and success are the result of social forces that are not so easy to see: despite the so-called “American Dream,” the vast majority of people rarely move out of their economic class—if you’re born poor, you probably die poor. I agree with the concept of “personal responsibility” and all that, but, at this point in American history, neo-liberal demagoguery has taken the concept to a wild and harmful extreme. Motivational speakers are, ultimately, apologists for “personal responsibility” mania. The speaker who I endured was no different.

Her topic was “character.” She related her theme to education with this simple thesis: teach students to value character and they will be motivated to work harder. She said, “Character is the root of success…and achievement is the fruit of character.” Whatever. Like most of her peers, she enjoyed reducing the complexities of what is for many Americans a harsh existence in our take-no-prisoners, money-first society to simple slogans. Even though her presentation consisted mostly of inspiring stories about morals and values delivered in a fundamentalist Christian oratorical style, her rhetoric was steeped in pro-capitalist ideology, propaganda disguised as pedagogy.

She told us that the “greatness of American business is trust and honesty.” She related character emphasis in education to business profits. Hello? Isn’t there some irony here? Afraid not. She made a joke about Enron at one point, but never even came close to discussing the 800-pound gorilla in the middle of the room: America’s devotion to greed and how that devotion erodes all other values. There was no discussion about how her message might be problematic.

Indeed, “character,” as a concept, has contributed to the general confusion surrounding quite a few of our national messes. The profit-at-all-costs imperative is the social context wherein failure of “character” has resulted in the ongoing wave of corporate and accounting scandals still rocking the US economy: “character” cannot be considered without delving into some truths that are uncomfortable to American capitalism; the “few bad apples” approach just doesn’t cut it. Perhaps worse, the corporate news media has replaced political analysis with “character” analysis. The Iraq war, based on blatant nationalistic lies (believed by all “good” Americans), and the needless Clinton impeachment are but the two biggest examples of newsrooms’ obsession with “character” to the exclusion of any real political content.

Again, I’m all for individual virtue, character, and responsibility. However, without considering social context, “character” becomes simply dogma that ultimately supports the powerful and justifies their position. Of course, that’s one of the main functions of public school, so why am I complaining?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$