And now for your reading pleasure a look at the tangled web time, corruption, and circumstances have woven for me in the area of education. It consists of oppressor's wrongs, the insolence of office, the law's delay, proud man's contumely, even a few pangs of despised love. In the end my patient merit has been met with the spurns of the unworthy.
The oppressor's wrongs
From 1964 to 1985 there was a military dictatorship in Brazil that oppressed its people through censorship, human rights violations, and persecution that included torture and killing. A guy named Paulo Freire believed that education was the only way to overcome the oppression and he began teaching adult literacy with two primers called Saber Para Viver (to know is to live) and Viver e Lutar (to live is to struggle). He was accused of spreading communism and almost all of his literacy plans were cancelled at the start of the military coup. Freire was jailed for 75 days before choosing exile to Bolivia and Chile. His book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed described how his goal was to teach literacy through studying relevant concepts of the oppression experienced by his students as an ultimate means of fighting it. The capitalist "development" within Brazil was one repeated worldwide that consisted of replacing empathy or love with the hegemony of abstraction.
Distraction, preoccupation, diversion, abstraction in place of human contact, socialization, community... see any of that anywhere? The only thing missing, for now, in the societies in which I participate is the military coup.
Freire's teaching of concrete, relevant concepts, words and ideas to farmers in the Pernambuco area of Brazil virtually eliminated illiteracy AND FAST! He started with farming terms and eventually got into politics and the state of oppression with which all were outraged. His successes were repeated all over Brazil and by no coincidence Brazil became literate as well as politically active. They ousted the military dictatorship and a few years later had their first democratic elections.... speaking of abstractions....
What? Who said that?
Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel) writes of several examples in which simple living, cooperative, empathetic, egalitarian societies were oppressed and often wiped out by those who chose the path toward the abstraction and complication of what we euphemistically call development, progress, or advancement. That path invariably includes
The insolence of office
It seems to be a weakness of the human condition that A) we gravitate toward the choosing of leaders and B) we choose the people least qualified for the positions. The very worst quality a true leader can have is...
Proud man's contumely
This is the very haughtiness, narcissism, and overwhelming self-love that makes a person believe he/she DESERVES to be leader and it can be clearly identified by oppressive treatment of others they consider to be below themselves. This can only come via an education that focuses on the abstractions of separation, competition, and disunity while downplaying or ignoring natural, concrete commonalities and interconnectivity.
The law's delay
Almost all of the institutions and organizations that comprise the offices that separate classes, castes, tribes, even nationalities are entrenched in rules, regulations, and laws that are intentionally complex to the point of abstract ambiguity for the purposes of delaying proper judgment or not performing it at all. These rules have become the currency of almost all social climbers in societies transfixed upon the abstraction of progress. It has reached the point at which only the unapproachable are privileged with any discretionary power, and since they are by design unapproachable, they have little to no opportunity in which to employ it. This predicament, however, has evolved in an ever-changing world in which the necessity of challenging and contravening obsolete rules has never been greater. But I challenge you, dear reader, to challenge a rule in any area of "civilized" government, or more to my point today, education. There you will surely encounter the law's delay.
The spurns of the unworthy
I skipped over the pangs of unrequited love since that whole flock of waaah waaah tends only to fly after copious imbibement and as of this minute I am as sober as a university chancellor. As for the spurns of the unworthy, my recent experiences, including one this very morning, have required Job-like patient merit and have been chock-a-block full of such spurns. It is they that have inspired this post.
Enough with the Shakespeare
Now then... you may wonder at my brief biographical inclusion of Paulo Freire. It serves multiple purposes actually. First of all, a discussion of how modern day U.S. (and possibly Canada) could employ methods of teaching English to illiterate people (largely newcomers) that resemble those of Freire, was to be my thesis topic until I was informed of a rule 10 courses into my master's in education that the 11th and 12 courses were to be a study done on a class and the write up of that study was to be my thesis. The entire time I've been studying, since April of '22, nobody informed me of this. Not even my academic advisor who I asked about it! She wouldn't even offer any concrete advice on which courses I should choose so that I wouldn't - you know - take any extra.
As you may know I was teaching newcomers to Canada before I quit and moved here to the States. I got to know some of their situations and the political situation in Canada in which they are embroiled and it contributed to the already well established oppression of the Haves over the Have nots in my country. To be clear, I don't think the refugees or newcomers are the worst of it either. Just part of it. A lot of them come to Canada with promises of settling allowances and housing support along with $18/hr. jobs. They can be experienced carpenters that end up in furniture factories (one of my students) or bakery owners who end up baking for owners (another of my students). Then they find out that 18 bucks an hour barely pays for food and rent. A lot of them burn out and go home.
As for America, the class division and social hierarchy is better documented and may be more firmly entrenched. The violations of rights, oppression, torture, and censorship are more subtle, but I believe they exist and teaching English through lessons that include political commentary could prove to be successful pedagogy of the oppressed.
The second purpose for the inclusion of Freire is that he taught his students what I believe to be the most valuable lesson in education, perhaps the very genesis OF it and that is to seek out as much knowledge as you can by questioning. This will invariably lead to disappointment and suffering, but in the end, you can remain ignorant or you can live a life of intellectual struggle. To know is to live and to live is to struggle.
While teaching newcomers to Canada we were given binders, online lessons, shared files, and an entire resource room full of Canadiana that was allowable to teach. Things like the provinces, the government structure, the positive things about our history, even heroes like Terry Fox (The 44th TF Run took place 10 days ago and might have increased the $900,000,000 total money raised for cancer research to over a billion). However, it takes a while before students feel comfortable enough with the teacher to share complaints about Canada and ask questions about political issues that they hate. Taxes was the biggest issue in my class and I probably would have been fired if I taught a lesson on taxes. They kept a VERY tight watch for teaching like that. Any personally created lessons had to meet or exceed the very stringent auspices of the PBLA and LINC and whatever other abbreviated board of busybodies there exists to censor and keep education less relevant. This is not even to mention the management of the location where I taught who checked binders, made classroom visits, required frequent meetings, demanded online and written summaries of materials you taught and evaluated, and basically spied on all the teachers.
The current state of educating in my life
I probably could write a thesis that could pass challenge on the above topic, but at what institution and where could it be implemented? I am currently in the position that I've read is shared by a lot of scientist nowadays: I can't write or study about what I want, I have to write and study about what is required. I read the 11th class description and there was a list of topics the study needed to meet with and I think the topic of class size is what I came up with in my mind as I read it. I'm still not even sure it would be accepted. Quite a big difference from what the 10 courses up until now have inspired me to write about! When I heard the news about needing a class to study I had already decided to quit my part-time, dead end teaching job in Calgary, but I don't mind telling you, because of the betrayal perpetrated on me by my university not making it clear that there was such a limited range of thesis topics, I did not waste a moment's thought on keeping the job for the purposes of my master's. Besides, my degree has a focus on high school students so I wanted a high school class. I was in contract negotiations with Japan about a university job there but I found an offer in Taiwan for public middle and high school teaching. Strap on your seatbelts for this!
I sent a stack of documents to Taiwan, passed an online interview, sent another stack of documents, got fingerprinted, received a criminal record check, sent that, made a teaching video and sent that, and finally I had my transcripts from my Canadian university (Lakehead) sent to the Illinois Board of Education along with a detailed application form (and another stack of dox) to get a substitute teacher's license. The girl in Taiwan named Tiffany who is my handler I guess said that she will shop me around to public schools (using (cringe) my video) once she receives my sub license. So I wait for two months and the license doesn't arrive. I sent a few emails to the Illinois BOE in the mean time that were answered with basically "be patient, this takes a while." Not long ago a DIFFERENT person answered yet another email saying that she was sorry and my Canadian transcripts need to be sent to an equivalency translation agency (which might be the epitome of abstraction if not bureaucratic dogshit) and their evaluation needs to accompany my transcripts on file before they can issue a substitute teacher license to me.
Bear in mind, this is America! About 55,000 vacant full-time teaching positions and 270,000 positions currently filled by underqualified teachers. They gave me a list of about 20 agencies that would gladly translate my grades but this is America the apotheosis of that mighty abstraction called money. There would be about a $300 fee for this service. Luckily ONE of the many places to whom I emailed my situation got back to me in human form rather than letter form or form letter and said that my transcripts only appeared to be 3 years of study so he could only give me credit for 3 years toward a 4-year US bachelor's degree.
I went to grade 13 in Ontario, the province in which I got my BA. The transcripts appear to be only 3 years worth of study because they ARE 3 years worth of study. In some convoluted (possibly just a knee-jerk educational complication/complexity) scheme that only lasted a short time and has now been done away with, the government of Ontario once offered an "honours" program or grade 13 as part of high school which would count towards the "honours" 3-year BA in university. If you got your 3-year BA without grade 13 it was called a Non-Honours BA. So grade 13 + 3-year BA = 4-year BA. Equivalency in the US = a 4-year BA.... right? Well to add to the complexity, distraction, and abstraction that keeps us from being a happy, well-functioning, empathetic, egalitarian society ----- No. No, it doesn't. Not necessarily... Particularly not when your education, career, dignity, or LIFE depends on it. Especially not then!
I offered to send transcripts from my high school to the service but the guy said he has rules to abide by and could not accept them. At least he doesn't have the discretionary power to accept them. So I sent an email to Illinois (or 5) telling them the situation and asking if there was anything that could be done. I offered my high school transcripts to THEM too. They replied with the rules and regulations response as well. I explained the whole situation to Cyndee and she informed me that there was nothing that could be done. At least Cyndee did not have the discretionary power to do anything. I even told her that I was accepted to teach in universities and study at universities where my degree was evaluated and found to be the equivalent of a 4-year BA by the various international evaluation bodies but that made no difference. I don't want to waste $300 on a service that will only give me credit for 3 years toward an American BA and then not receive my substitute teaching license. Again, this is America during a teacher's shortage. I have already worked in the public school systems of Canada, Korea, China, and Indonesia and have over 20 years of teaching experience. They're whinging about teacher shortages but are withholding a license from me on a minor technicality!
It may be off topic but I can think of several parallel actions of abstraction involving property managers, nurses, and crying about shortages when it's just insane amounts of certification, licensing, rules, regulations and other such abstraction that causes inaction. "Maybe we should just import people from other countries with those skills..." I won't go down THAT road to abstraction here.
Now I will fully admit that Taiwan wants me to get this certificate so they can misleadingly ensure their clients that all teachers are "certified" teachers in public schools. It's a slight fractiuring of laws and this is the kind of baloney that has led us down this rabbit hole of horrific complications and complexities. This kind of behavior should open things up to wider discretion, but the opposite action has caused confusion (and abstraction) rather than solution.
The current state of education in my life
SO... since my Taiwan plans have met with an existential road block, I thought I might consider alternate routes through which I could continue and even complete my Master's in Education. I went to an open house at St. Mary's College nearby and was impressed with the commitment to education. One I have seen precious little of in my experience. You will remember that my choice for thesis, should I continue at the University of the People would be class sizes and how smaller is DEFINITELY better despite the current trend in the opposite direction. They are proud at St. Mary's of offering a better experience through getting to know classmates and instructors via small class sizes. That gave me hope for the world of education, a world with which I have grown steadily more and more disenchanted. I decided to look into it.
Unlike most government agencies, school, and universities, I was easily able to get an email and correspond with the right person on the very first try! You can't have a good idea of how rare that is in my life right now but I almost cried! With renewed hope in humanity I sent Cyndi documents, transcripts, and related my story. She consulted some other people and came to the conclusion that St. Mary's is not the place for me largely because the University of the People is not a regionally accredited school. This is not to say that Cyndi is unworthy to spurn me, but with my experience and education, I am certainly not a candidate worthy to be spurned. Yet here we are.
So Cyndi said that I could receive no credit for the courses I have taken at that school. Maybe if they are regionally accredited in the future.... ah the law's delay.
There is a bit of good news. Cyndi gave me the names of some other local schools and suggested that they might not be so particular about allowing my credentials and more suitable master's programs to which I could more easily transfer my credits. I also have it on good authority that I don't need certification to sub here in Maryland. However, there are gonna be some visa issues, applications to fill out, maybe even some OTHER certifications to get and other legal hoops to jump through to be sure. I might be able to relate to Tiffany my situation and she may offer an easier way to get substitution certification from another state here. Or I might be able to get a job in some other country teaching for peanuts while I finish my master's at the U. of the P.
Anyway, I am in an existential crisis here questioning my education and the value of education as a whole. I have fallen more out of love my career with every misadventure I've had as a teacher and now it has spread into my studies too. Don't get me wrong, when I'm in the classroom doing my thing, I am happy. It just seems that happiness is destined to be disallowed. The most absurd parachute-not-deploying facet of my tangled web of educational abstraction is that experience has been directly proportionate to INaction rather than action. The more I teach, the less qualified I become.
Maybe I should write a parallel to Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed called The Oppression of Pedagogy.
You reckon?
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