You didn’t do the reading. That’s okay. You made a decision that something else – it doesn’t matter what it was, was more important. It’s not for me to say that you were wrong. But it is my job to convince you otherwise. I think this stuff is important. If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t waste your time, or mine trying to teach it. It’s not just a job to me. You’re not just a job to me.
So forget everybody else here. It’s just you and me. And you feel bad – you feel embarrassed. Maybe you’re embarrassed enough to lie – to try to tell me that you did do the reading. That’s okay too, because you’ve been punished and humiliated for making decisions that disagreed with authority figures before. Anyone who would treat you like that for deciding what to do with your own time deserves to be lied to. But don’t. Don’t bother. I don’t think less of you, and nobody who gives it any serious thought should either. It’s your life. You only get so much of it. Nobody should punish you for how you decide to spend it.
There is something that I want to take up with you, though. How did I fail to teach you why this stuff is important? I don’t think you’re stubborn, or stupid, or cruel, so what I strongly suspect is that I failed to engage you somehow. I failed to motivate you to do that reading – reading that I thought was important.
I think most teachers try to motivate negatively. They inflict, and threaten to inflict dire consequences for non-compliance. I suspect that they aren’t really teaching anything but obedience and compliance. I don’t think those are worthy parts of the curriculum. Certainly not at this level. So I don’t want to do that. Like I said, I think this stuff is important, so I don’t want to attach it to painful experiences. That would teach you to hate it, and maybe worse, teach you to hate learning itself. I’ve seen it happen.
So how do I show you the good? I can’t show you everything I know – what I see about this subject that makes it important. You don’t have the information yet to get it. That’s why you’re here. So, what can I give you here, now, to motivate you to participate in getting the knowledge and skills that I have to teach?
It won’t be in the next session, or maybe the one after, but I’m going to call on you again, and hold you accountable for the reading. I’m telling you that now, in the hope that you’ll be ready. That you’ll have read, and thought about the material, and be ready to engage in discussion. Let me tell you what will happen if you put in the time and effort.
You will experience power. You will experience what it is like to be on top of it – smart, prepared, and having a well-informed opinion. That’s a very, very good feeling. And it’s a justified good feeling. Learning how good that feels is perhaps even more important that the subject matter I’m so damned convinced about. Because if you get in the habit of acquiring information, thinking about it, and being ready to discuss it, you will become something of infinite worth – a functioning, independent thinker. Fully human. Ready to be part of a thinking, deliberating community. A worthy citizen, a better co-worker, a better parent, lover, family member and friend.
If I have one core belief – one unshakeable doctrine it is that every human being has the potential to be such a person. But most of you won’t. You’ll learn only to do what you’re told in the hope of reward or the fear of punishment. You’ll learn to avoid uncomfortable questions, and to think as little as possible about the “whys” of life, burying yourself in the day to day, making yourselves smaller, and more compliant in the hopes of “getting by.” Well, civilization is built on the backs of such worker bees. The blood of their dreams oils the gears. Keep your head down. Don’t ask questions.
For most of you, that will be enough. Or at least, that’s what you’ll settle for. I’ve come to accept that. I don’t like it, but I’ve come to accept that most of you aren’t buying what I’m selling. Fine. I’ll do my best to give you enough information so that you can pass a test and get your compliance credential. Really, no hard feelings. I can’t say I believe in the intellectual autonomy of each of you and then judge you harshly when your opinions differ from mine. And I won’t.
But if you want something more – if learning to “get by” isn’t enough for you – if you’d like to see if there’s a fuller, richer life out there; a life more beautiful, meaningful, and dangerous than the one you were taught to carve off parts of yourself to fit into, then show me.
Do the damned reading.
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Nice! Important reading from you, again.
Wonderfully stated. Students have had a lot on their minds in America these days. If protesting genocide is the excuse for not doing the damn reading, I am very proud of them and their ability to pivot and embrace what’s urgently important, even tho I agree w/you.