Troublemakers

by AJ

Excerpt from a post from Creating Passionate Users, titled
Classroom Learning Sucks

[My daughter] did have some fabulous teachers throughout the rest of her public school days, but wouldn't you know it--they were always the teachers getting into trouble with the school administration or even parent's groups. In a later post I'll tell you a shocking story about one of her teachers who made the national news, twice, for encouraging students to think--and act-- for themselves. He was nearly fired during a witch hunt that both local and national media seized on (although most later offered apologies when it became obvious what was really going on).

Isnt that always the case? The few (very very few) great teachers I had in public school were likewise rebels and weirdos. Luckily, I was blessed (or cursed) with the ability to easily assimilate the bullshit, spit it back in acceptable form, and get good grades- all without much effort. But my more creative (and probably more intelligent) classmates just couldnt do that. They squirmed in their chairs. They rebelled openly. They got labeled as "troubled" or "difficult" or "learning disabled".

Wouldnt it be interesting if instead of labeling the student, we labeled the teacher or school: "teaching disabled"

Because thats exactly what most (99.99%) of schools (public, private, corporate, children, adult) are. They are teaching disabled disfunctional organizations.

Which means if you are a truly dedicated teacher who genuinely wants to encourage learning, acquisition, curiousity, and autonomy... you must become a troublemaker. You can be a subversive and secret troublemaker or a loud-mouthed in-your-face troublemaker... but a troublemaker you must be. Otherwise you are nothing but a pawn and a clock puncher and might as well go work for Wal-Mart or GE.

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