On advocacy and activism

                                      


In light of a long, rambling, preachy facebook post on one of the several online teacher networks, I should tell you I'm not at school today. I am in Oklahoma City with my family. I mention why later but I just wanted to make sure anyone thought I was slacking off at work...

I was asked by a friend who works for an organization that does things to make Oklahoma better (vague enough) to share how the budget cuts in Oklahoma have impacted my professional and personal situation. It was a broadly specific set of questions and I was happy to do it. I guess if you teach long enough and let people who are smarter than you know that, they will ask you things because, after all, you're a teacher. And as a teacher you are (at least I am) going to answer those questions. It's a chance to help so I filled out the responses (I'll let you know what I hear).

Being asked this question made me think... And its what you would like to discuss today. I'm a teacher and I know what that means... Am I anything else? Am I supposed to be anything else? Is there something else I should be doing?

Teachers (or at least I do) often struggle with where exactly that line between state employee and activist and advocate is. It is too easy to assume people will just do what they are supposed to. Education will always receive copious amounts of lip service. Everyone "supports" education. Then why are we so behind and where does all that support go? There are thousands of Educators active in the political process throughout the state that engage and support our state leaders. But not nearly enough of us do this consistently. At least, in part, political inactivity and a social naivete is killing us. It is setting us up for failure on a spectacular level. We are actively drowning in a sea of narcissistic, self-loathing empty success. We think we are number one, when there is no evidence to give us that assumption. We delude ourselves into thinking the way we have always done it will  just magically work one day. Then, when we keep making it not work, we get all surprised and bothered.. We have to do better that and begins with engagement, participation, and advocacy.

So how do we do that ethically and professionally? As teachers we are paid for by tax dollars. There are and should be protections, for all involved. The students are a captive audience, easily manipulated, and their parents are the final arbiters of most aspects of their development and social awareness. I get that. I definitely do not want my children subject to extreme indoctrination or on political issues in the classroom setting. Reasonable people can have reasonable conversations about those lines and it's not something that is going to be solved anytime soon or in any specific way. It requires a mature attitude and mindset. 

But what are we supposed to do when that which is what we do and are is under attack? Should we just allow this to happen? One critical peculiarity of our profession is its entanglement in so many lives and pieces of our culture and communities. It really does affect everyone. And there is no getting around that.


So I believe we have to advocate. We have to lobby. We have to make sure our voices are heard. After all, this is a democracy (kind of) right? If we don't, no one else will, and it's not just gonna happen. I would also submit it is our duty, especially if we have found ourselves in the camp complaining of the decisions and actions of the State legislature and leaders. If we are not willing to help and contribute in some way, we really should stop complaining. I don't think we are going to stop complaining... So let's get active and involved.

I haven’t spoken much about this on this platform but my youngest child and only daughter has been battling Leukemia for the past two years. She has responded well to most all treatments. However, there still remain trace elements of the cancer in her system so earlier this year we began the process of her undergoing a bone marrow transplant. I will write about it all in my next post (now that I’ve brought it up) but I brought it up to say the transplant doctor and team is at Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. She's been there for over a month and will be there until later this Summer. Her mother is staying with her and her brothers are staying on this side of the state to continue school. We are spread pretty thin and make a lot of trips to the City. It is where i am today. 

                                                                           

The hospital is located near the State Capitol and the nearest sonic and On Cue are at 23rd and Santa Fe right below (literally) the Capitol. That stretch of 23rd St in Oklahoma City is named the Clara Luper corridor.


I see that sign almost every time I travel to Oklahoma City. You do too if you take the Broadway Extension or 23rd St to get to the Capitol. That should mean something to us. If you don’t know her story, get to know it. Do it now, I'll wait..., then come back here. If you know it, great. I sure hope you share it when it's appropriate, or even when it isn't. She's an amazing story and she is a member of our education family. We need to find that piece of our profession again, and fight for our kids unequivocally
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If Clara Luper and her students can take action in the way they did, surely we can tweet, email, blog, chat, and discuss topics with our students. Should it be civil? Yes. Will it be controversial? Yeah. Will people be upset? Probably. You'll most likely be one of them at some point, but that is the point. Ideas aren't clean. And knowledge isn’t always pleasant, linear, and pre-boxed with a script and score. We have to be grown ups about grownup things.



We could start with this....

Talk about Trump and Trophies...

What I wanted to do with this post is discuss a cultural touchstone of division and conflict. One that gets a lot of attention. Participation trophies and awards. From auto ads to op-eds to memes, their destructive force is everywhere...

Participation Trophies are the bane of the existence for anyone that “really” loves America. This is one of those odd issues where polar opposites can attract similar opinions. I’m still going to talk about it but, I feel like I have to add something that I think will make sense.

I don't watch or have HBO so what I get is YouTube. I admit I am a fan of BIll Maher. He and I agree on a lot of things but my tweet below expresses my sentiment on the ideological relationship. Here's one where we disagree.

There’s something special about a guy you agree with but still root against. I kinda know how is feeling right now. I say that I'm a fan, which is to say, I’ll watch and listen but I’m not a super fan. I bring it up because apparently he and his staff had almost the same thought as I had about Trump.

Over Spring Break I met and talked shop with a few fellow #oklaed colleagues. While we were chatting I had this thought, and I expressed it to the group. They loved it and I was thrilled. I went home and wrote a tremendous portion of this entry. Then I caught Bill Maher’s show from Friday March 18.

I appreciate a lot of what Bill said and you’ll see where we agree if you choose to read the rest of this. But, I saw something else in his reaction and I want to address that as well. So here it goes...

I don't want to be too psycho-analytical but I think the rugged individualism and bootstrap attitude forged and infused into so much of our culture creates an almost subliminal aversion to anything “group” related. I think a lot of people see participation trophies are seen as an affront to this very foundational belief. And I can see where they see that. I kind of agree with them, sometimes.

Bill and I agree that The Donald is a perfect example of the negative side effects of the participation trophy culture. This is a person with an incredibly overblown ego. So overblown there is no logical or rational explanation for his worldview of himself.

How else could someone like Donald J Trump, who has failed spectacularly, so many times, on so many levels, in front of so many people, still have the lack of social awareness to declare himself such a “winner”? How else could he utter the phrase (about :50 in)“I know a lot of words, I have the best words” and expect to be taken seriously? How else could he, when asked who we should listen to on foreign policy, say (about :20) “I have a great brain and have said a lot of things, so I would listen to myself” and expect to be taken seriously?

Yes, Donald Trump is a walking participation trophy. His supporters are the parents in the helicopters applauding his buffoonery. They mistake volume as a leadership trait m. They validate his rants as policy, and his obscene inherited wealth as “hard earned”.

This is the culture Donald was raised in and continues to create for himself. An environment so detached from reality, he was able to develop a sense of entitlement and arrogance that can only be measured in how many buildings you affix your name to. Which is in no way a successful measurement of anything but your ability to spell. But, even spelling has been in issue for Trump and his campaign, see here and here.

Of course, there are several living examples that embody much of what was just described. And a lot of them are young kids. The one that concerns me right now isn't though. As a millennial I get it, we were the group that got Participation trophies, and are forever scarred because we don't know what winners are.

So Bill and I came to a similar conclusion, he goes much more cynical and heartless than I. Mostly because of a different worldview. He despises children. I do not. He has no children, I do. He doesn't want kids and doesn't want to be around them. I'm a teacher. That is perfectly fine. If that's your worldview, Don't be. As much as possible avoid them. But remember when you do have to interact with children, they are no more or less human than you. They have the same rights, as much as you want to wish them away, they get to exist. Do some of them misbehave? Yeah. Most do. A lot. So what, get over it and move on. The world isn't getting scarier from the kid's temper tantrums…. The world is getting scarier from the grown ups temper tantrums.

So having a different view of a large section of the culture will obviously lead to different understandings. His view of “the youth” can make it difficult for him to acknowledge they may not be that bad after all. After all, young kids are not having much to do with Trump. The younger the voting bloc the more peripheral he and his attempts at ideas become. I don’t have the time or resources to delve into much more of this too much, but i feel safe in assessing the millennial cooperative spirit and affinity for collaboration over competition had little to do with the “everyone gets a trophy advertisement” that is The Donald. Or if it did, I don’t think they deserve nearly the amount of blame they get to shoulder.

So, Bill and I part ways on this topic is”Who’s to blame?” Maher makes no specific mention other than “the culture”. I would take it a step further. I would add it was the adults at the time (mostly Boomers and older Gen Xers) were making these rules. It was the Boomers who parented with a “no one gets hurt safe space” attitude. Where is the outrage over who built this culture? I’ll leave that discussion for later (the who built this culture discussion) but I think even a cursory look at history would show the effects of such an environment being blamed for such outcomes, is misleading at best, and outright deceitful at worst.



So even though we get the brunt of the blame for all the evils it has created, perhaps we weren't the inventors of the Participation Trophy culture in the first place? I'm looking for nor am I awaiting an apology or anything, I just feel that it should be stated and considered. I do think it is important to know where and how this leviathan came from. If for no other reasons so we can stop the behavior and break the cycle for future generations.