America's Youth

In the recent months I've been seriously humbled both by my own abilities to impart knowledge on others and the salience of politics for the youth. I'm becoming a teacher which is somewhat expected and yet also so far a stretch for me that I constantly fight some kind of internal war over the whole thing. I've always considered myself some kind of intellectual, a philosopher of the high political calling if you will. Which, in all honestly, has contradicted the role of educator in my mind. The stigma teachers suffer in our society is that in general we think we're smarter than they are. Perhaps this begins with our own "student-hood", where our adolescence makes it clear that we know more than not just our teachers, but, well, everyone.

I believe this carries over into adulthood in the form of parenthood. (That is a lot of hoods I know, but bear with me.) Parents ALWAYS know more than their children's teachers. Education is just another form of service, and the customer is always right. In so many ways parents undermined the teaching of our children, by making light of a teacher's education or level of knowledge, or by challenging their authority at the drop of a hat. Now, don't get me wrong, there are times when parents are 100% in the right, but most of the time they are taking the word of a 15 year old over that of a trained adult.

I may have digressed a bit here, but this all leads to a fevered pitch I promise. Society as a whole holds no faith in teachers. If that wasn't true our most prominent education related quote wouldn't be "Those who can't do, teach.". It may seem that I've got my back up due to my future in education, but let me reassure you, I've believed these things myself. Which brings me back to my original thought: the internal war.

How can I, someone who can wax eloquent on the fears Madison expressed in Federalist 10, want to become a teacher? I have no idea. For some reason, despite their complete lack of interest in the subject, I have an overwhelming desire to wax endless on separation of powers and legislative veto to a wholly un-captive audience. And maybe that's what is missing. There isn't any passion in education; there isn't any real desire to leave something of yourself behind in the future generations. (I could insert some kind of teacher/student sex relationship joke here, but I fear it might be too obvious.)

Supposedly testing is the answer, and I can't say that is all wrong. It holds teachers accountable, and it forces us to examine what's important for our children to know. I don't know if it makes the right choices, and I could go on for hours about the lack of student accountability, but it is certainly some kind of effort towards de-stupid-ifying our youth. (You can tell I'm from a pre-testing generation.) But I contest that maybe its how we view teachers that is half the problem. We call teachers professionals (intellectuals even), but we treat them like plumbers, and pay them half as well. The stigma keeps the passion away; there are no economists teaching economics, just history teachers being forced to pick up an elective.

So here I am, a political scientist, someone whose dream it is to go on and wax eloquent to lecture halls full of 19 year olds, whose dream it had always been to be a respected Washington political analyst, and I'm teaching. I consider myself a most unlikely revolutionary, but maybe that is exactly what I am.