Howard Zinn on teaching and activism

[Skip Zilla]

I just started reading Howard Zinn's You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994) and stumbled upon a couple of paragraphs that raise questions in my mind about teaching and activism. Here are those paragraphs copied from page 7:

When I became a teacher I could not possibly keep out of the classroom my own experiences. I have often wondered how so many teachers manage to spend a year with a group of students and never reveal who they are, what kind of lives they have led, where their ideas come from, what they believe in, or what they want for themselves, for their students, and for the world.

Does not the very fact of that concealment teach something terrible--that you can separate the study of literature, history, philosophy, politics, the arts, from your life, your deepest convictions about right and wrong?

In my teaching I never concealed my political views: my detestation of war and militarism [Zinn was a bombardier in WW2.], my anger at racial inequality, my belief in a democratic socialism, in a rational and just distribution of the world's wealth. I made clear my abhorrence of any kind of bullying, whether by powerful nations over weaker ones, governments over their citizens, employers over employees, or by anyone, on the Right or the Left, who thinks they have a monopoly on the truth.

This mixing of activism and teaching, this insistence that education cannot be neutral on the crucial issues of our time, this movement back and forth from the classroom to the struggles outside by teachers who hope their students will do the same, has always frightened the guardians of traditional education. They prefer that education simple prepare the new generation to take its proper place in the old order, not to question that order.

Are these paragraphs and Zinn's A People's History of the United States (1980, 2003), "the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of--and in the words of--America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers," as unpatriotic, subversive, and dangerous as jingoists claim that they are? And if not, where does that leave us as teachers of our (American) history?

[Ian Carmichael]

And science, and religion...

[Lilith Windwalker]

The cost of courage? Hmmm. At this point, I wonder if my "courage" was worth it. The problem with "speaking truth to power" is that those who are courageous enough to do so often have family members who suffer the consequences.

Tenure is necessary. Teachers need to be protected from cowardly administrative "types" who have no sense of what it means to take risks in the classroom. Those of us who teach English and social studies are especially vulnerable.

[Ian Carmichael]

Security is great. On the other hand, courage is important too, and the cost of courage may be important to pay. I'm ambivalent to tenure (perhaps because I don't have it!) because it seems far more often a sinecure, not a beachhead for liberty and free expression. Perhaps there needs to be a refinement - those on tenure track are entitled to continue, given their continuing competence at teaching, research and professional integrity.

[Mike]

Lilith... hope this finds you well and i am sorry to hear about your loss as newspaper advisor.

Over time here on fireside we have had some discussions about tenure. Tenure gets critized publically often... and i will agree that at times it seems like it allows some professionals to get over and coast..... however... your post takes me to the heart of what tenure is about.

Academic tenure is primarily intended to guarantee the right to academic freedom: it protects teachers and researchers when they dissent from prevailing opinion, openly disagree with authorities of any sort, or spend time on unfashionable topics.

Wondering.... you teachers that teach in private schools.... how much do you need to worry about things like; fair pay, doing as your told, not rocking the boat too much, and losing your jobs because of personality conflicts?

Tenure is much more then job security...... yet in many states it is under extreme pressure...many think by doing away with it...schools will reform faster.......

Here is some of that retoric: One example of public education's unfinished job of reform is its unwillingness to eliminate antiquated and obsolete laws, regulations, and policies, such as teacher tenure. Tenure is a holdover from a bygone non-unionized era, and it's high time to abolish it so that critical and essential improvements to public education can proceed.

The tenure concept itself is a product of the bureaucratic, static, monopolistic, hierarchical, and generally incentive-less structures that have defined public education for over 100 years. As such, tenure has been and is a legal, cultural, and philosophical block to reform, and there are several reasons why we should eliminate it.

So what do you think????

Is tenure worth keeping?
Is it worth expanding?

be well... mike

[Lilith Windwalker]

Still, we must ALL remember that teachers take great personal risks when they present their own political views. To be sure, if we are doing our jobs correctly, SOMEONE will be offended. After 25 years of teaching in Catholic schools, I lost my job as newspaper adviser defending my students' press freedom. Teachers need greater professional protections if they are to take risks in the classroom.

[Skip Zilla]

Great anecdote from your classroom, Meredith, about your discussion of the third stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner. Although your perspective on being as unbiased as possible in spurring your students to question the completeness and accuracy of standard textbook accounts of history is crucial to their developing independence of mind, it is important also for them to learn to know how you approach culturally-contentious social phenomena as moral issues which engage you actively. Students want to know what you value, to trust your fairness, and to admire, even love, you as a leader who cares deeply about what they believe to be true.

[Meredith S]

This thread reminds me of a day when I was teaching 5th grade American History. The focus for the period was the National Anthem and the history behind it, a seemingly innocuous topic. We started out by watching snippets of people sing (and often flub) The Star- Spangled Banner. Then I reviewed some of the history behind the song (Baltimore, Francis Scott Key, etc.). After that, I handed out copies of the lyrics of The Star- Spangled Banner, including the third verse which their textbook had excluded.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

A quite lively discussion ensued, especially since a couple of the students were British. The feeling in the room ranged from outrage to total support. We considered what sorts of songs the British might have written about battles they’d won, what kinds of feelings might have inspired Key to write what he did, and the kind of emotion that builds up very quickly when you’ve won at something (fight, game, argument, etc.). We also talked about why this was the only verse the book left out.

I think activism has its place it teaching, but I guess I see my role more as an agitator/questioner. I always think “What’s the view of the majority in the room?” and “What perspectives are we missing by espousing that view?” I work to bring those views to light, and I’m always grateful to students who help me see when I’m been sucked, unquestioningly into a way of looking at the world. It doesn’t mean in the end that the majority view won’t be the one my students or I end up taking, but if we do so, it won’t be because we haven’t considered the other options.

[Skip Zilla]

I heard about an interesting book on C-SPAN2's BookTV this afternoon about how "the other half" live in 21st-century America, titled Traveling Light: On the Road with America's Poor by Kath Weston. A video of Ms. Weston's TV broadcast may be available on the BookTV website.

[Laura Gibbs]

One thing I always think about is not just the message that the teacher is putting forth in the classroom, but the classroom itself (real or virtual as the case may be). To me, there are few things more depressing than a committed left-wing activist who abuses their position of authority over students in order to badger them - talking a line of radicalism in a classroom that itself cannot make any claims to real democracy at all. And I see this A LOT...

I do not like at all the fact that I am put in a position of authority vis-a-vis my students (I give the grades, while their ability to determine my professional future is indirect and minor at best)... so, while I am not shy to share with students my take on the world at large (that is a big part of what I can offer them as an educator), I am also very wary of the fact that they recognize - rightly - a total imbalance of power in the classroom itself, a power that lets me set the agenda and downright requires that I give the grades.

Now, I organize my classes so that a lot of the agenda-setting is turned over to the students... but not all faculty proceed in this way: for teachers who do their grading based on tests prepared by the teacher, the students see much power there in the teacher's hands - and a lot of teachers - even those of the left persuasion - seem to often be oblivious of that dangerous power dynamic.

I teach for the University of Oklahoma, the only state in the nation where every single county went for McCain in the last election (I think I am right about that statistic... I read it in our student newspaper, though, so I might be wrong...?) Anyway, I am very cognizant of the fact that in the political world that is the state of Oklahoma, there are going to be a lot of students who disagree with me about a lot of political issues - and if I am going to get into issues where they might disagree, I need to make sure that I provide room for EVERYBODY to agree, disagree, and express themselves and explore their views and the views of others...

One way I do that by having students choose their own projects for class, and to make sure they spend a lot of time reading the work of other students in class, rather than just listening to me all the time. So, yes, you can learn a lot about my politics from how I conduct my class and everything I do as a teacher... but my students have politics too, and I learn a lot from seeing how THEY conduct their work in class and what they do as students. I hope I give them enough room to do that; I know I have definitely felt trampled as a student in the classroom... I never want my students to feel that way. Luckily, in the ONLINE classroom, there is a lot of room to maneuver in... :-)

[Catherine Menyhart]

This thought provoking post led me to reflect on the teachers who have the most lasting influence on my education and they were invariably those who wove their own beliefs and ideals into their teaching. I disagreed with many of them but at least their honesty allowed us to discuss our differences on an open, philosophical and personal plane.
Thanks to everyone for the great resources and readings on this subject!