Repression and the Elementary School: A Homage to my Children's Teachers

We left our course tonight with me praising the traditional model of the American elementary school. Not to overstate the case. There are many things we can point to that are unhealthy in the model. But, overall, I think it works.

It works--perhaps--because it represses without surplus repression.

One of the teacher-scholars I most admire, Deborah Meier, put it this way:

Kindergarten is the one place--maybe the last place--where teachers are expected to know children well, even if they don't hand in their homework, finish their Friday tests, or pay attention. Kindergarten teachers know children by looking and listening. They know that learning must be personalized because kids are incorrigibly idiosyncratic. . . . Catering to children's growing independence is a natural part of a kindergarten teacher's classroom life.

Helping kids tie shoes, go the bathroom, enter into the play frame, stand up for themselves when a peer bullies them--this is the bread and butter of an elementary school teacher’s work. Or, in my very out of touch mind, it should be.

Lots of prohibition in this environment, yes; but lots of chances for the creation of overlapping discursive spaces that honor the diverse talents kids bring to school. And, more importantly, working to develop those diverse talents.

For our differences take on their greatest value when they are appreciated and honored by the communities in which we live. Communities are the nexus where, in the words of Frederick Buechner, “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” 

The conjoining of one’s own joy with the desire of the other--this is, to my mind, what Marcuse is pointing us towards.

Thank you all very much for a wonderful course.