

The 7 Lesson School Teacher (John Taylor Gatto) - DaniFong
http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt

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DaniFong
"The third lesson I teach kids is indifference. I teach children not to care
about anything too much, even though they want to make it appear that they do.
How I do this is very subtle. I do it by demanding that they become totally
involved in my lessons, jumping up and down in their seats with anticipation,
competing vigorously with each other for my favor. It's heartwarming when they
do that, it impresses everyone, even me. When I'm at my best I plan lessons
very carefully in order to produce this show of enthusiasm. But when the bell
rings I insist that they stop whatever it is that we've been working on and
proceed quickly to the next work station. They must turn on and off like a
light switch. Nothing important is ever finished in my class, nor in any other
class I know of. Students never have a complete experience except on the
installment plan.

Indeed, the lesson of the bells is that no work is worth finishing, so why
care too deeply about anything? Years of bells will condition all but the
strongest to a world that can no longer offer important work to do. Bells are
the secret logic of schooltime; their argument is inexorable. Bells destroy
the past and future, converting every interval into a sameness, as an abstract
map makes every living mountain and river the same even though they are not.
Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference."

