Today she pulled me aside and said that she disagreed with what I had to say. I asked why and she said that she believed what defectors had wrote in their biographies (she didn't name any specific books). I didn't actually get to counter that (or respond to anything really) beyond the documentary (Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang) I linked in my email which she didn't watch apparently. She was respectful I guess. Should I respond with a critique of Escape from Camp 14 and In Order to Live or should I just brush it off?
yeah no. fuck teachers I hate this shit so much.
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Im not disagreeing, but OP is in high school. Understandable to be sick of teachers by then lol
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As a teacher, we're structurally insentivised to be assholes. If you're not actively fighting against it, you're being a controlling dick to children.
Kids can and should be saying "fuck teachers."
Teachers are workers, too. They are some of the most overworked and underpaid workers in developed nations. So, teachers are good (as a class) and deserve our support.
While some teachers are assholes, most have too much shit going on to adequately delve into each topic they teach and engage with students. They have a set syllabus they have to follow that is dictated by the politicians (and capitalists). They can’t really afford to rock the boat.
Look at Knowing Better, who used to be a history teacher who peddled the same myths and bs as everyone else, because that is what is taught and that is what you’re forced to teach. It is only after he left the profession and got the time to actually delve deeply into American history that he learnt the truths that otherwise would remain hidden.
Me after learning teachers are workers: :walter-breakdown:
Teachers are workers, yes, but they are also PMCs, and tend to be libs. Although some can be left-libs, the process of becoming a teacher / the work environment itself makes it difficult for communists to be teachers in the USA. I am once again recommending the book Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt regarding this subject.
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Hard disagree. Teachers are professionals in that they sometimes require a great deal of education before they are allowed to work in a classroom. The only exception here is when the state has more or less abandoned students to the prison industrial complex. Teachers without college degrees and various licenses cannot get near rich white classrooms, except as substitutes.
As managers, teachers are 100% there to manage students, even if students themselves are not paid a wage. Students are a class in capitalist society, and the teachers' purpose is to keep them under control (by making them compete with one another, for instance, although there are a million other ways to deaden their class consciousness) and to separate the wheat from the chaff. Students who do well in school (who prove that they are okay with capitalism and are willing to jump through the hoops of the ruling class) are rewarded with more prestige and a better chance of having decent PMC or PB jobs; students who do poorly are excluded from decent employment or even turned over to the police.
I say all of this as a former teacher who has known and liked many teachers in my life. Where I live, many of them are unionized Bernie libs, which is about the best I think we can expect of them for the time being. (So far as I can tell, they have all stopped wearing masks, and their lib union recently failed to get a pay raise that came close to even equalling inflation.) There's definitely a contradiction with teachers as well, because the bourgeoisie has mostly come to the conclusion that they are a waste of money—meaning that teachers are often at odds with local PB landlords and business tyrant shitheads, although teachers are also threatened by the big bourgeoisie who are trying to privatize every aspect of education. Thus the fact that teachers are definitely underpaid. At the same time, any teacher who tries to radicalize students (by even entertaining the possibility that what we hear about North Korea might not always be true for instance), or assist in forming a student union, will be fired and blacklisted.
Respectfully, we're overworke, but this job makes 20k more than the canvassing and retail I did in college. We're only underpaid compared to other workers with masters' degrees.
You're on the money about garbage curriculum though.
That said, that shouldn't excuse us any more than cops should be excused for doing their jobs.
If you're Marxist about it, being a worker makes us powerful when we're fighting against our conditions as workers, not when we're laboring for the boss. Teaching is not progressive in the American school system.
I really don’t think you can compare teachers and cops. They are more like nurses IMO.
Sadly, Manufacturing Consent works, comrade. If it really bugs you, focus on how it works and learn how to undermine it.