"If some kid said to you, 'I want to do a job I can be proud of, where the culture encourages you to be a man or woman of integrity,' what would you say?" ----- So true, and so so depressing!
I got the same lecture to avoid teaching by my 7th grade math teacher, who told me under no circumstances should I ever make his mistake. He had high hopes for me of becoming an academic mathematician, and ran programs over the summer so that students like me could be accelerated and take high school math classes while still in middle school. However, as a college kid I always gravitated toward part-time and volunteer gigs working with kids that ate up a lot of my time outside of my studies. I realized I didn't have the temperment to go into theoretical mathematics, because I have a nurturing and caretaking drive that couldn't be satisfied if I only focused on doing math proofs 12 hours a day.
So what was my first job out of college? A high school math teacher. 😆 I actually thought it would be a good way to combine my love of mathematics and working with children. I quit (was actually pressured to resign) after 2.5 months of teaching because half my class was cheating on tests, had been cheating on math tests for most of their lives, and were several years behind their actual grade level. I made the mistake of raising this to the administration and asking for their help on how to remedy the problem, and no joke, got a lecture from the principal about how everyone cheats in life and not being able to accept that was a personality flaw that made me ill-suited to teach.
While I never did find a full-time job that didn't suck my soul away, I have worked a few part-time jobs with kids (tutoring and kids yoga) that I actually enjoyed. Thank you for sticking with the teaching profession and not losing all hope! I probably would of not ended up okay in life if it weren't for several teachers who nurtured my intellectual curiosity and moral development.
I got a similar speech on not being so hard on cheaters from a principal once; the man was also a part-time referee who, in a sports-crazy state, wouldn’t have dreamed of giving a first down to any player without a five man review of a contested run.
Not lying; it was shocking to me too! My reaction to this comment is what led to me getting sacked, I said something along the lines of: “when I interviewed with you I got the impression that you actually cared about student’s education.” He said something along the lines of “you look so young that I forget I’m not talking to a student right now.” My job was pretty much over after that.
Most of my education took place in private schools with strict honor codes that most kids took seriously, so I was also shocked that cheating was so systemic in this school and not just 1-2 of my students. The principal acted like I was some kind of moral puritan, but I never on a crusade to punish students, rather understand why the cheating culture was this out of control. I got my answer — the lack of values were coming from the adults.
I'm so glad you keep this available for those who are interested but unable to spare the funds. As for myself, this is due to medical issues that are costing me plenty. I learn a great deal from your efforts, the intellectual content aside, I am trying to better my writing skills so not only are your posts insightful, they're educational and best of all, sincere and that is worth more than ever these days. The seed is most assuredly falling on fertile land. I thank you, Sir.
I teach at a western university in Vietnam, where the culture of cheating is deeply engrained. I’m fairly pessimistic and see much of my job as a version of palliative care at this point. I never ever take it out on my students, as frustrated as I get. They didn’t choose to be brought up in a casino, which is what the modern world has become. You can’t have education without people knowing what integrity means, and most students have not the faintest idea. On a brighter note, there are always those few outliers in each class who refuse to be infantilised by the technology and questionable pedagogy. That gives me enormous hope.
Never forget you are a hero. I admire you. I am a believer and so I work for an audience of One. The deterioration of our culture is secondary to our rejection of Christianity. Capitalism without moral constraints is a very exacting and corrupting master.
I am a Surgeon. The “Corporatization” of health care has been a disaster. Maximizing profit over others suffering is incredibly sick and twisted.
I’m not any kind of hero; I only hope it suffices that I’m what another age would call ordinary. I can only imagine what private equity has done to medicine.
2 hrs ago·edited 2 hrs agoLiked by Librarian of Celaeno
The students who care will be inspired by a teacher like you, who perseveres in spite of the widespread indifference to learning (kudos to you for teaching Biblical Greek!). Even those who could care less about striving to do well, will register your integrity, and it will leave traces of living a more purposeful life on them. Keep sowing, even if most of the seeds land on stone, those seeds that land on fertile gound are of incalculable worth.
The English teacher's email shows how not having proper oratory or writing skills limits your ability to think clearly. It was a paragraph nearly devoid of information.
Thank you for the many points you made in this more than an essay, a reveal of your heart. As I have stated before you are not just working, you are doing The Work.
Being in education for over 36 years I can validate your observations. It begins with the elementary projects for science/math/history, etc. where you can obviously see the projects that were actual student made and those that were done by their parents. Our children did their own and we were proud of them.
I have a public school/brain damaged job stream theory, not exactly proven but I continue to gather data. It goes this way for many ~ play football in high school & college (receive multiple concussions), become high school coach/part time history teacher because you have to have 2 preps a week, become superintendent. Now I believe I need to expand my theory to include governor and VP nominees.
All that to say, I’m so glad you are who you are to your family, your students and to your readers as The Librarian of Celaeno. May God continue to richly bless you.
Humankind is civilised by the few who care deeply about who they are and what they do. They come in all ages, with widely different abilities and only two things in common; they care and they are a tiny minority, even a remnant.
I am an old man who went to more schools than I can remember (don't ask) but it was no different when I was a teenager; teachers who cared were few and far between and students who cared even fewer. As an historian you surely know that it has never been different. What makes the current state of affairs seem different is the constant bombardment of bad news in real time. What made society seem more caring in the past was its obsession with keeping up appearances, in other words, being fake; so not even that is new.
When you say "My writing is how I satisfy the debt I owe myself for the compromises I make in the course of all that" I can only applaud. That's how remnants build their stamina to stay the course.
The entire culture is false. In a nutshell, this: "Colleges are in decline, and they need new customers."
People are terrified of authenticity because they will be revealed as the incompetents that they are, and, since everyone is cheating and pretending to be brilliant, who would risk authenticity? You'd fall very far behind instantly.
Hey! Mean Librarian! Lay off that teacher. She just insisted the student with knowledge for using the AL she doesn't want the student to fail she needs guidance.
You know what's really dismal? You can be confident that that teacher wrote that email herself precisely because it's so garbled and ungrammatical. Often a big tipoff that someone is using AI is that they turn in papers that have correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Perhaps next-gen AI will figure out how to "humanize" its text by including mistakes and errors.
Thank you for no paywall - as a British pensioner I am on a limited income.
The Afghans are largely goat herders so no wonder illiterate - they are probably experts in the care of goats and in living in such a hostile environment - but hopelessly ill suited to anything remotely modern and sophisticated.
The idea they could be turned into a modern efficient army was hopelessly naive - no wonder the Taliban have returned and the heroin trade remains the backbone of their economy. It's all you can do with such a population - anyone half way educated has been killed or has escaped.
As to the state of education in America I suspect you are the canary in the coalmine and subsequent generations will become more and more dependent on increasingly sophisticated AI while humans grow increasingly infantile - all over the Western world.
But at least you have your Biblical Greek students - an oasis in a desert of ignorance.
"Coalition" Forces were protecting the poppy fields; look at how the previous article defends the heroin industry (good pretzel logic there. I'm not defending the Taliban; they also forbid music and dancing. They really are Dark Age Islam types.
Yes, few remember that under Taliban rule the Afghan heroin trade dried up and when the US came in the fields were aflower again -- protected by US soldiers. Some fields were burned in a pathetic fig-leaf op for domestic US consumption but all the big growers were protected. Sounds familiar somehow...
I just read another thread by Lorenzo from Oz. He was speculating about reasons for the decline of fertility. When I read your essay, it put into succint words what I have often thought: how could anyone be at peace with himself if he knowingly inflicted existence in this situation on a child?
Your painfully honest critique of where we’ve drifted is sobering. I remember really only a couple of teachers in HS that pushed us to think. Your students are blessed to have you. They may never understand that but I’d wager some do now or will in time. I’m also naive as I learned recently about how prevalent cheating in higher education has become almost expected to advance. Laziness has always been a problem but now we can be the masters of it.
An illuminating and moving essay. As a teacher myself, I certainly can connect with many of your points, though teaching English to foreign speakers of the language is much, much different; I can instantly tell if someone uses AI in the essays I ask them to write. Most of the time it's a private lesson and I already know the student's level well, so there is no cheating -- especially since my lessons revolve around conversations and discussions (something you cannot fake).
Much like you, I work two jobs to support my family: the first as a writer for an indie game studio -- which pays pretty badly, but hey, welcome to Hungary -- and the second as a language consultant. Despite the energy that both require, they are intensely rewarding.
Everyone likes to complain about education, yet the reality is that few are willing to pay for competent educators. I began teaching almost seven years ago, and when I started, I thought I'd hate it. There is no status in being a teacher. No one gives a shit about you, or, in many cases, even respects you. What I found, however, is that the connections you build with students -- the profound impact you might have on their lives -- are priceless.
Pushing the nonsense aside, teaching is *real*, as you so aptly put it; in fact, the below quote was the part of the essay that hit hardest:
"This is authentic; this is real."
Indeed it is; in time I hope to reward as many as I can for doing just that -- keeping it real.
The worst hypocrisy is when people pretend that the education system we have is foisted on them by elites. It’s what the people want. Deep down, an egalitarian society has a need to punish excellence, which an honest system would reveal and reward. It’s that mindset that must first be broken.
Hum. The way the ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ indoctrination system is today I wonder if some dudes with reps, with street cred, might just be able to set up classes, start teaching in the public square, no accreditation, no diplomas, maybe certificates of completion, maybe not.
For example say some guy loving history writes a syllabus & just starts teaching. Not in the Great Halls such as Harvard or the University of Podunk, instead just setting his soapbox down stepping up and teaching. No sheepskins, the students leave with what they paid for in their heads.
Seems to me some guys way way way wayyy back in the day started doing that in Greece and made a living at it with perhaps a patron or two on the side supplying extra money for a bit more wine and olives.
A catchy name like perhaps the Khan Academy or maybe the Library Of Celaeno might help.
In the public square, youtube, Rumble, substack, -wherever students can gather.
Open classes would be good, audited for free, pay when submitting homework or to take exams. Paid classes fine but as outrageously cheap as possible, an hour class say two bucks, fifty students that's a hundred an hour with not deans or other administrators to pay. Snap quizzes; check box A, B whatever included in the two bucks class fee, essay exams and feedback costs extra. Teacher's office door is always open but an hourly rate when stepping (Texting, chatting or zooming) across the threshold.
Just a passing a thought but it worked for some guy named Plato who set up shop in the Grove of Hecademus.
"If some kid said to you, 'I want to do a job I can be proud of, where the culture encourages you to be a man or woman of integrity,' what would you say?" ----- So true, and so so depressing!
I got the same lecture to avoid teaching by my 7th grade math teacher, who told me under no circumstances should I ever make his mistake. He had high hopes for me of becoming an academic mathematician, and ran programs over the summer so that students like me could be accelerated and take high school math classes while still in middle school. However, as a college kid I always gravitated toward part-time and volunteer gigs working with kids that ate up a lot of my time outside of my studies. I realized I didn't have the temperment to go into theoretical mathematics, because I have a nurturing and caretaking drive that couldn't be satisfied if I only focused on doing math proofs 12 hours a day.
So what was my first job out of college? A high school math teacher. 😆 I actually thought it would be a good way to combine my love of mathematics and working with children. I quit (was actually pressured to resign) after 2.5 months of teaching because half my class was cheating on tests, had been cheating on math tests for most of their lives, and were several years behind their actual grade level. I made the mistake of raising this to the administration and asking for their help on how to remedy the problem, and no joke, got a lecture from the principal about how everyone cheats in life and not being able to accept that was a personality flaw that made me ill-suited to teach.
While I never did find a full-time job that didn't suck my soul away, I have worked a few part-time jobs with kids (tutoring and kids yoga) that I actually enjoyed. Thank you for sticking with the teaching profession and not losing all hope! I probably would of not ended up okay in life if it weren't for several teachers who nurtured my intellectual curiosity and moral development.
I got a similar speech on not being so hard on cheaters from a principal once; the man was also a part-time referee who, in a sports-crazy state, wouldn’t have dreamed of giving a first down to any player without a five man review of a contested run.
I almost can’t believe that’s true, but why would someone lie about that in a comment. Seriously? That’s disgusting there are principals like that.
Not lying; it was shocking to me too! My reaction to this comment is what led to me getting sacked, I said something along the lines of: “when I interviewed with you I got the impression that you actually cared about student’s education.” He said something along the lines of “you look so young that I forget I’m not talking to a student right now.” My job was pretty much over after that.
Most of my education took place in private schools with strict honor codes that most kids took seriously, so I was also shocked that cheating was so systemic in this school and not just 1-2 of my students. The principal acted like I was some kind of moral puritan, but I never on a crusade to punish students, rather understand why the cheating culture was this out of control. I got my answer — the lack of values were coming from the adults.
I'm so glad you keep this available for those who are interested but unable to spare the funds. As for myself, this is due to medical issues that are costing me plenty. I learn a great deal from your efforts, the intellectual content aside, I am trying to better my writing skills so not only are your posts insightful, they're educational and best of all, sincere and that is worth more than ever these days. The seed is most assuredly falling on fertile land. I thank you, Sir.
Thank you very much.
I teach at a western university in Vietnam, where the culture of cheating is deeply engrained. I’m fairly pessimistic and see much of my job as a version of palliative care at this point. I never ever take it out on my students, as frustrated as I get. They didn’t choose to be brought up in a casino, which is what the modern world has become. You can’t have education without people knowing what integrity means, and most students have not the faintest idea. On a brighter note, there are always those few outliers in each class who refuse to be infantilised by the technology and questionable pedagogy. That gives me enormous hope.
Never forget you are a hero. I admire you. I am a believer and so I work for an audience of One. The deterioration of our culture is secondary to our rejection of Christianity. Capitalism without moral constraints is a very exacting and corrupting master.
I am a Surgeon. The “Corporatization” of health care has been a disaster. Maximizing profit over others suffering is incredibly sick and twisted.
I’m not any kind of hero; I only hope it suffices that I’m what another age would call ordinary. I can only imagine what private equity has done to medicine.
The students who care will be inspired by a teacher like you, who perseveres in spite of the widespread indifference to learning (kudos to you for teaching Biblical Greek!). Even those who could care less about striving to do well, will register your integrity, and it will leave traces of living a more purposeful life on them. Keep sowing, even if most of the seeds land on stone, those seeds that land on fertile gound are of incalculable worth.
The English teacher's email shows how not having proper oratory or writing skills limits your ability to think clearly. It was a paragraph nearly devoid of information.
It’s puzzling.
Thank you for the many points you made in this more than an essay, a reveal of your heart. As I have stated before you are not just working, you are doing The Work.
Being in education for over 36 years I can validate your observations. It begins with the elementary projects for science/math/history, etc. where you can obviously see the projects that were actual student made and those that were done by their parents. Our children did their own and we were proud of them.
I have a public school/brain damaged job stream theory, not exactly proven but I continue to gather data. It goes this way for many ~ play football in high school & college (receive multiple concussions), become high school coach/part time history teacher because you have to have 2 preps a week, become superintendent. Now I believe I need to expand my theory to include governor and VP nominees.
All that to say, I’m so glad you are who you are to your family, your students and to your readers as The Librarian of Celaeno. May God continue to richly bless you.
Humankind is civilised by the few who care deeply about who they are and what they do. They come in all ages, with widely different abilities and only two things in common; they care and they are a tiny minority, even a remnant.
I am an old man who went to more schools than I can remember (don't ask) but it was no different when I was a teenager; teachers who cared were few and far between and students who cared even fewer. As an historian you surely know that it has never been different. What makes the current state of affairs seem different is the constant bombardment of bad news in real time. What made society seem more caring in the past was its obsession with keeping up appearances, in other words, being fake; so not even that is new.
When you say "My writing is how I satisfy the debt I owe myself for the compromises I make in the course of all that" I can only applaud. That's how remnants build their stamina to stay the course.
The entire culture is false. In a nutshell, this: "Colleges are in decline, and they need new customers."
People are terrified of authenticity because they will be revealed as the incompetents that they are, and, since everyone is cheating and pretending to be brilliant, who would risk authenticity? You'd fall very far behind instantly.
Guenon was prescient here. The reign of quantity means the impetus to generate numbers at all costs, even the self.
Numbers equal influence. Shame about the influence.
That you for writing that! Insightful! I totally agree.
My children go here.
https://www.delphian.org/
Its amazing but I feel like we are in the middle ages. On the children of the Nobility can be educated correctly.
They are hiring.... and would love you...
Just sayin...
Oregon is a bit of a commute from my home in the Southeastern, but I’m grateful for the thought.
Hey! Mean Librarian! Lay off that teacher. She just insisted the student with knowledge for using the AL she doesn't want the student to fail she needs guidance.
You know what's really dismal? You can be confident that that teacher wrote that email herself precisely because it's so garbled and ungrammatical. Often a big tipoff that someone is using AI is that they turn in papers that have correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Perhaps next-gen AI will figure out how to "humanize" its text by including mistakes and errors.
Count me in with the naive group that, upon reading the email, confidently assumed it was written by a classmate.
I owe thanks to the author for opening my eyes to the state of education. Unfortunately, it all rings too true with institutional greed.
Excellent if deeply depressing essay.
Thank you for no paywall - as a British pensioner I am on a limited income.
The Afghans are largely goat herders so no wonder illiterate - they are probably experts in the care of goats and in living in such a hostile environment - but hopelessly ill suited to anything remotely modern and sophisticated.
The idea they could be turned into a modern efficient army was hopelessly naive - no wonder the Taliban have returned and the heroin trade remains the backbone of their economy. It's all you can do with such a population - anyone half way educated has been killed or has escaped.
As to the state of education in America I suspect you are the canary in the coalmine and subsequent generations will become more and more dependent on increasingly sophisticated AI while humans grow increasingly infantile - all over the Western world.
But at least you have your Biblical Greek students - an oasis in a desert of ignorance.
The Taliban aren't allowing heroin production: https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/06/talibans-successful-opium-ban-bad-afghans-and-world
"Coalition" Forces were protecting the poppy fields; look at how the previous article defends the heroin industry (good pretzel logic there. I'm not defending the Taliban; they also forbid music and dancing. They really are Dark Age Islam types.
Yes, few remember that under Taliban rule the Afghan heroin trade dried up and when the US came in the fields were aflower again -- protected by US soldiers. Some fields were burned in a pathetic fig-leaf op for domestic US consumption but all the big growers were protected. Sounds familiar somehow...
The Taliban also banned bacha bazi; under the US-friendly regime it made a comeback.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna564861
Good God I remember seeing some pederasts hanging from lampposts on the Taliban's return. Taliban's okay.... for Afghanistan.
Look at the music and the naked girls dancing in clubs, I can’t even blame them at this point.
The lyrics of music have been about sex and degrading things for a very long time now and dancing in the nightclubs has only been simulated sex.
I just read another thread by Lorenzo from Oz. He was speculating about reasons for the decline of fertility. When I read your essay, it put into succint words what I have often thought: how could anyone be at peace with himself if he knowingly inflicted existence in this situation on a child?
Your painfully honest critique of where we’ve drifted is sobering. I remember really only a couple of teachers in HS that pushed us to think. Your students are blessed to have you. They may never understand that but I’d wager some do now or will in time. I’m also naive as I learned recently about how prevalent cheating in higher education has become almost expected to advance. Laziness has always been a problem but now we can be the masters of it.
An illuminating and moving essay. As a teacher myself, I certainly can connect with many of your points, though teaching English to foreign speakers of the language is much, much different; I can instantly tell if someone uses AI in the essays I ask them to write. Most of the time it's a private lesson and I already know the student's level well, so there is no cheating -- especially since my lessons revolve around conversations and discussions (something you cannot fake).
Much like you, I work two jobs to support my family: the first as a writer for an indie game studio -- which pays pretty badly, but hey, welcome to Hungary -- and the second as a language consultant. Despite the energy that both require, they are intensely rewarding.
Everyone likes to complain about education, yet the reality is that few are willing to pay for competent educators. I began teaching almost seven years ago, and when I started, I thought I'd hate it. There is no status in being a teacher. No one gives a shit about you, or, in many cases, even respects you. What I found, however, is that the connections you build with students -- the profound impact you might have on their lives -- are priceless.
Pushing the nonsense aside, teaching is *real*, as you so aptly put it; in fact, the below quote was the part of the essay that hit hardest:
"This is authentic; this is real."
Indeed it is; in time I hope to reward as many as I can for doing just that -- keeping it real.
Cheers¬
The worst hypocrisy is when people pretend that the education system we have is foisted on them by elites. It’s what the people want. Deep down, an egalitarian society has a need to punish excellence, which an honest system would reveal and reward. It’s that mindset that must first be broken.
Hum. The way the ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ indoctrination system is today I wonder if some dudes with reps, with street cred, might just be able to set up classes, start teaching in the public square, no accreditation, no diplomas, maybe certificates of completion, maybe not.
For example say some guy loving history writes a syllabus & just starts teaching. Not in the Great Halls such as Harvard or the University of Podunk, instead just setting his soapbox down stepping up and teaching. No sheepskins, the students leave with what they paid for in their heads.
Seems to me some guys way way way wayyy back in the day started doing that in Greece and made a living at it with perhaps a patron or two on the side supplying extra money for a bit more wine and olives.
A catchy name like perhaps the Khan Academy or maybe the Library Of Celaeno might help.
In the public square, youtube, Rumble, substack, -wherever students can gather.
Open classes would be good, audited for free, pay when submitting homework or to take exams. Paid classes fine but as outrageously cheap as possible, an hour class say two bucks, fifty students that's a hundred an hour with not deans or other administrators to pay. Snap quizzes; check box A, B whatever included in the two bucks class fee, essay exams and feedback costs extra. Teacher's office door is always open but an hourly rate when stepping (Texting, chatting or zooming) across the threshold.
Just a passing a thought but it worked for some guy named Plato who set up shop in the Grove of Hecademus.