"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 dropped out of my junior year of college, with a 3.5 GPA. There were a lot of reasons for that, but one of them-- I didn't realize it until much later-- was that I was actually reading all the assignments and writing my own papers. I was completely baffled by my classmates' attitudes toward school, and could not figure out how they were spending four nights a week partying and still passing all their classes. I was working almost fulltime, going to school fulltime, struggling to keep up with my classes... but maintaining good grades. But here were all these kids who were not dumb exactly, but incurious, totally uninterested in any of their classes, only in it for the "college experience" but somehow they were passing?
I took it as a signal that the academic life wasn't for me. I wasn't up to snuff. If all these dumber kids were whizzing through with half the week to spare for partying, while I was burning every waking hour just to keep up and still pay the rent... what else could that mean? I'm not cut out for academics. I'm a slow reader. Maybe it was just for rich kids after all. There was some mysterious thing all these kids had, that I was missing.
Later I found out that they were just paying other people to write their papers, reading a summary of the book online, and blowing off any classes that weren't essential to their majors. I had no idea.
So... the cheating thing. It's not just that *those* kids aren't learning anything. It's that they are completely demoralizing all the other students. It's a system set up for competition: where cheating is allowed, how is anyone honest supposed to compete? But it's worse than that at the grade-school level particularly, because teachers respond to the lack of understanding, by assigning more practice problems, which eat up more and more of students' time *outside* school and not only do they not benefit the kids who cheat anyway, they're punishing the kids who understood it the first time around and do all their own work.
The principal knew the parents would chase him/her out of his own job had he done the right thing. This rot is now rampant in our society. Taking the easy way out is the golden path.
In the corporate world, the principal turns into HR.
I’d say all adults bear responsibility here. I doubt many parents have a clear idea of what school actually is or what they want their kids to be able to do once they graduate.
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.
It’s worthy of going on your shelves, judging by your most recent booklist. It’s a very good (and compelling) examination of what math is and isn’t, and what teaching/learning is and isn’t.
Brilliant reply to a truly challenging and generative post because your reply is also truly challenging and generative.
By focusing on “cheating” you may *appear* to divert us from “the librarian’s” plaint about writing and the life of the mind. But your focus actually raises thorny questions about “rules,” how they are made, and how they are changed. “Cheating” is (rightly) mostly seen as rule breaking, and as such it’s always rife with many dangers. But “cheating” is also often a *legitimate*(?) reaction to rules, laws, and traditions that are either unjust — or out of touch(?) with the needs(? aims?, desires?) of those who see them as obstacles. To put it another (provisional) way, to see widespread cheating as corruption can be a symptom of a quite narrow and/or elitist outlook.
When leaders (another kind of “elite”) look with forbearance (or even encourage) certain levels of cheating, there may be (probably ARE) multiple reasons and motivations. For one thing cheating (however widespread) is more easily individualized than an out and out revolt. This is true even when certain types of cheating have deep cultural supports and many cheaters have the immediate supports of networks of (sometimes highly resourced) affiliates. Those cheaters who are not well in touch with the cultural supports and who lack immediate supportive networks are the ones most likely to be sanctioned (made “examples of”) which may be more like the periodic *mowing the lawn* of weedy “corruption” rather than anything like trying to plow up and replant with more “wholesome” fodder.
The idea that everybody should be able to read and write is a relatively novel and still rather revolutionary idea, perhaps akin (in more than one slow motion way) to the early earnest Bolsheviks who thought they could teach basic communist and Marxist concepts to Russian peasants. I’m not going to argue that the stolid and resistant peasants were wrong or right (or try to figure out HOW and WHY they were wrong or WHY and HOW they were right). But it does seem like among those idealistic Bolsheviks, there might have been far too many rather inflexible fervent “true believers” (among the many who were always a bit more opportunistic and power hungry).
Maybe *some* day nearly everyone will see how it is possible to maintain an economic surplus without exploitation—and where everyone generally contributes all they can and generally takes only what they “need”? Maybe *some* day the general reading, writing, critical and analytic (including mathematics) skills will be much higher than today? As Christina and the “librarian” surely know, good teaching is a lot more than upholding standards, but good teaching and compelling (but relatively non coercive) standards will always remain essential (mixed in with so many other types of “mothers of invention”* in the meaningful sustenance of the human project.
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*as an ancient Roman meme observed “*Necessity* knows no law!” though as Plato and Frank Zappa had previously recognized, it is also the mother of creativity.
To some extent that’s true, but I limited my specific focus in this essay to students who are elite, taking classes considered advanced for their age as volunteers. There are no mitigating factors for cheating in that context; they chose the higher path and failed the test of honor. In general, pretty much everyone is capable of more literacy than the system demands, but few are able to meet the standards it envisions for everyone- hence the fraud.
As Kate Smith used to bellow (to tears of devotion and groans of mirth), “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
My teaching “career” had me dealing (mostly) with the underprivileged (although some had high income parents or parents who were college professors — and some were far brighter than I with interests immeasurably (by me) deep(?) into obscure veins of esoterica. So “cheating” in any harsh sense was never an issue for me. The occasions when a student presented a poem that I could prove to them was lifted from the internet were (as I remember now) opportunities for a mutual chuckle. I didn’t have to deal much (professionally) with either academic or business elites although I’ve observed the latter informally in venues such as yacht clubs where the level of casual alcohol consumption suggests a certain degree of struggle with stress, if not of conscience.
I am not trying to divert from the main discussion at all, rather validate the sentiment that teaching can sometimes feel like a pointless waste of time in a system that doesn’t really care if any learning is going on.
I don’t judge kids for not liking school, but I also don’t want to pretend to be a teacher if teaching isn’t what my job actually is. I suspect many people who’d otherwise make great teachers don’t either. I got paid 30k a year with crappy benefits, and only took the job because I wanted to work in a profession that positively contributed to something. After learning I couldn’t do that, I worked service industry for a bit and made a little more money doing that.
It makes me happy to read that the Librarian has found small ways to make his job feel more meaningful in a system which feels broken, and I respect that and empathize with the struggle.
I thought your reply was brilliant (and not "really" a diversion from a digression but an observation that deepened a readers' perspective on the dilemma being decried).
Now you are AGAIN deepening and enlightening the discussion by focusing on teaching and learning: two quite mysterious (to me) processes. I worked in education for decades and NEVER met an individual who conveyed (to me) a convincing or particularly galvanizing "understanding" of either process.
When I felt "judgy," I was equally likely to perceive lacks and laxity in myself as in others, but I think learning and teaching can only be measured and evaluated quite imperfectly -- especially in the short term (and longer term SCHOOL learning is hard to isolate amidst all the other influences upon a student's cognitive, social, and emotional development. The institutions designed to measure and evaluate teaching DO have other priorities as well that often cause teachers and students to feel that it's "a pointless waste of time in a system that doesn't really care if ANY learning is going on". (and of course SOME of the systemic priorities are not only indifferent to learning and teaching but actually hostile.
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.
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.
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.
Also an MD. I’ve had many premed students job shadow me, and the thought of what awaits them in corporatized medicine gives me pause. My Dad was a doctor, so I went into it with some foreknowledge, although the profession has been transformed beyond what he would recognize.
And yet, for the few students who have that desire to embrace lifelong learning, not just skate by or check boxes, and help others in a rare fashion, I have to encourage them. Lord knows that we will need a Remnant in medicine more and more as things slide. I feel that I owe it to my Dad and the real mentors in medicine that I had.
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.
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.
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.
I am homeschooling my children. As my eldest creeps up on his teen years, I have bouts of insecurity. Who am I? Am I the best we can do for his education? Can we get him to college level by ourselves?
Then, I see things like this post. We're OK. My kids will be OK. By my count, 50% of people who currently *make their livings writing* do not know the difference between "rein" and "reign"... and aren't even embarrassed about it. No, it's not good enough that my kids are in the 99th percentile on quality of education among their peers. That's too low a bar. No, we can't give them the best education they are capable of completing. But it is the best education available to them, and for us, that will suffice.
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 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.
Wow. I was drawn into this so much I resented the microwave telling me my coffee was once again warm enough to enjoy. Thank you! Thank you for honoring the Lord with your service to your family and your genuine concern for your students despite their apathy and their lack of belief in themselves to do great things.
This was one section that had me giving a standing ovation in my mind:
"Most teachers choose board games or some discussion group. I teach Biblical Greek. Hardly anyone wants to do it, but that’s the plan, really. Since it’s the only thing I do that attracts pure volunteers with no expectation of reward, I take advantage of that to offer something especially worthwhile. Those few who show up are exactly who I’m looking for. We spend the semester going over as much as I can, and the last thing we read is the Parable of the Sower. The sower scattered seeds even knowing some would land on barren rocks, while others would get choked by weeds. That didn’t matter; the sower’s efforts were for those few shoots that would mature and bear fruit. Everything else was worth putting up for for the sake of that end."
We have unschooled are boys from the beginning. It was an uphill climb to defend our choice and give reasons in support of it. Some minds were opened, most were too entrenched in the "this is how we do it" tradition. Today, our oldest (17) is working a full time construction job with a boss who is incredible - not only a man of God but a wise mentor as well. This is his senior year. He is struggling through many facets but he comes home each weekend with a newfound respect for his work and himself. It's beautiful. Our youngest (13) is currently working to author and illustrate a book series that is fun, engaging and teaches biblical values. He's in 7th grade. I wish I could bottle the joy my son's bring me while also encouraging parents to put in the hard work because the dividends cannot be measured.
May God richly bless you and your family for the work you do and the love for others that motivates it. We are in strange times. I am not a well-educated man and your writing and insights are helpful and inspiring to me - think of me as a student at a distance who appreciates what you do. Stay strong brother. I will pray for you at church this morning.
Thank you for sowing those seeds. Some of them will sprout.
I can sneer at those kids who use AI to cheat, but recently my own son, who graduated college 2 years ago, told me he rarely did the assigned reading for high school AP English. Everyone was getting summaries from Schmoop or whatever online grade-saver was in vogue then. And here I was thinking he actually read Emerson and Thoreau.
When I challenged him on this, he basically argued that so-called “advanced” HS coursework was just another required bullet point for the college “resume.” And since that “resume” also demanded a depth of (and success in) extra-curriculars and volunteer work, it made sense for him to minimize his time & effort in AP English and direct it elsewhere.
The college admissions system is cynical and designed so as to promote cynicism. I could see that based on the essay prompts so many schools issued the year my kids applied. So many schools wanted to know what applicants had done to build community or fight racism. The prompts themselves clearly signaled the answers admissions was looking for, and I suspect many applicants responded with fake narratives. No wonder the young view education as gamesmanship - that’s what it’s become.
The part that makes me saddest is that they think they’re getting over on the system when they’re really just shortchanging themselves. Never has there been a society more willing to trade its birthright for soup.
Speaking as someone who has taught around the world, first in Canada, then in Japan and now in Quebec I can say that though many students want to learn the ultimate problem is always the administrators and those in charge.
I've had to almost flee from one principal who would sniff me, and make passes for some reason. This is the same one, who once told me, 'the kids in my school aren't smart enough to appreciate Tolkien, so don't give them anything advanced to read and no homework or anything. English is too hard for them.' Then once I start giving them their lessons, I'm finding them picking up the material and grammar quickly enough, to perfect the rules quickly enough (a lot of it is review as many of my predecessors in my post as English teacher were frankly dumber than any kid, and didn't teach them anything for 5 years from Grade 1 to 6). What's so fascinating was that before I was let go, I had come up with a plan to finish the curriculum material by March so that the kids could read the authors they love so much in English (namely Tolkien or the Volsungs' Saga for some reason).
Some of them had literacy problems due to dislexia, but within three weeks were catching up to their reading and literacy levels. Yet the principal objected to this, as did the vice-principal. Meanwhile the other teachers were approving and thinking I was going too easy on them kids and going too slow. It was looking like they'd be at Tolkien though by Feb.
This was my latest venture into teaching. I'm not the best teacher, but public schools from what I can discern in Quebec are a disaster, in which the teacher tries to convey something, the kids love learning and reading and the school-board and management try to stiffle it. Not just through incompetency but also out of genuine malice.
It has been an honestly disheartening experience, not just for the sexual harassment and physical threats when I shot her down, but also due to the fact my students are gifted learners and learning quick, yet the principal utterly DESPISES them and wants them to 'learn slower and more at their level', when their lessons aren't even at the grade 6 level. Only their history classes impressed me, and I felt had been improved since my time as a kid, but still it could have used a little more focus on the Classics and Medieval period of France but eh, at least they were learning 500-600 years of history of Quebec/France from grade 2-6.
So to summarize; public schools be a nightmare everywhere. Quebec's are a shit-show, but not as bad I think as the Anglosphere. The Japanese school had kids willing to learn but the adults were convinced the students are stupid and shouldn't learn quick, and that they should sucker as much cash as possible out of them (this was a Conversation School).
Over-all, teaching in the private sphere might be best, though speaking personally I'm going back for a quick course and the hope to change career haha. So definitely understand those teachers of yours trying to dissuade you Celaeno.
Yeah, in some ways it can be easy in others tough as nails.
But on the bright side all the other teachers (save one) have come out in my defence and dislike her apparently.
The thing is, I don’t know how far this will go and contrary to what a lawyer friend suggested, I don’t feel comfortable spreading counter-rumours. So I’ve been drummed out.
But all’s good, I might soon have an offer teaching literature elsewhere, and just in case am back in college at the encouragement of a friend for a course that could lead to a steady position.
After my 1st-year university exams 25+ years ago, rather amazed by my results, I said to one of my tutors, "Do you think I could do a PhD and actually become a lecturer?" and she expostulated, "Oh but there are so many other things you can do!" She was a great tutor but already regarded academia as nothing but a degree factory; she's now about to retire and thoroughly hates it.
It turns out there was nothing else I could do, so I ended up doing minimum wage temp jobs then TEFL, shit outcome but I wouldn't have lasted five minutes in academia, I would have been fired for saying something "inappropriate", Academic Agent-style, or for calling my students dullards & clods and thrashing them with my belt or, at the least, stuffing them in cupboards.
"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 dropped out of my junior year of college, with a 3.5 GPA. There were a lot of reasons for that, but one of them-- I didn't realize it until much later-- was that I was actually reading all the assignments and writing my own papers. I was completely baffled by my classmates' attitudes toward school, and could not figure out how they were spending four nights a week partying and still passing all their classes. I was working almost fulltime, going to school fulltime, struggling to keep up with my classes... but maintaining good grades. But here were all these kids who were not dumb exactly, but incurious, totally uninterested in any of their classes, only in it for the "college experience" but somehow they were passing?
I took it as a signal that the academic life wasn't for me. I wasn't up to snuff. If all these dumber kids were whizzing through with half the week to spare for partying, while I was burning every waking hour just to keep up and still pay the rent... what else could that mean? I'm not cut out for academics. I'm a slow reader. Maybe it was just for rich kids after all. There was some mysterious thing all these kids had, that I was missing.
Later I found out that they were just paying other people to write their papers, reading a summary of the book online, and blowing off any classes that weren't essential to their majors. I had no idea.
So... the cheating thing. It's not just that *those* kids aren't learning anything. It's that they are completely demoralizing all the other students. It's a system set up for competition: where cheating is allowed, how is anyone honest supposed to compete? But it's worse than that at the grade-school level particularly, because teachers respond to the lack of understanding, by assigning more practice problems, which eat up more and more of students' time *outside* school and not only do they not benefit the kids who cheat anyway, they're punishing the kids who understood it the first time around and do all their own work.
The principal knew the parents would chase him/her out of his own job had he done the right thing. This rot is now rampant in our society. Taking the easy way out is the golden path.
In the corporate world, the principal turns into HR.
Sure, the system is run by bureaucrats not educators.
Parents are partly to blame, too. Tough teachers get targeted by parents.
I’d say all adults bear responsibility here. I doubt many parents have a clear idea of what school actually is or what they want their kids to be able to do once they graduate.
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.
Have you ever read Lockhart's* A Mathematician's Lament? You would get a kick out of it.
*No, not Gilderoy, a real professor.
I have not, but I'll look into it.
It’s worthy of going on your shelves, judging by your most recent booklist. It’s a very good (and compelling) examination of what math is and isn’t, and what teaching/learning is and isn’t.
Brilliant reply to a truly challenging and generative post because your reply is also truly challenging and generative.
By focusing on “cheating” you may *appear* to divert us from “the librarian’s” plaint about writing and the life of the mind. But your focus actually raises thorny questions about “rules,” how they are made, and how they are changed. “Cheating” is (rightly) mostly seen as rule breaking, and as such it’s always rife with many dangers. But “cheating” is also often a *legitimate*(?) reaction to rules, laws, and traditions that are either unjust — or out of touch(?) with the needs(? aims?, desires?) of those who see them as obstacles. To put it another (provisional) way, to see widespread cheating as corruption can be a symptom of a quite narrow and/or elitist outlook.
When leaders (another kind of “elite”) look with forbearance (or even encourage) certain levels of cheating, there may be (probably ARE) multiple reasons and motivations. For one thing cheating (however widespread) is more easily individualized than an out and out revolt. This is true even when certain types of cheating have deep cultural supports and many cheaters have the immediate supports of networks of (sometimes highly resourced) affiliates. Those cheaters who are not well in touch with the cultural supports and who lack immediate supportive networks are the ones most likely to be sanctioned (made “examples of”) which may be more like the periodic *mowing the lawn* of weedy “corruption” rather than anything like trying to plow up and replant with more “wholesome” fodder.
The idea that everybody should be able to read and write is a relatively novel and still rather revolutionary idea, perhaps akin (in more than one slow motion way) to the early earnest Bolsheviks who thought they could teach basic communist and Marxist concepts to Russian peasants. I’m not going to argue that the stolid and resistant peasants were wrong or right (or try to figure out HOW and WHY they were wrong or WHY and HOW they were right). But it does seem like among those idealistic Bolsheviks, there might have been far too many rather inflexible fervent “true believers” (among the many who were always a bit more opportunistic and power hungry).
Maybe *some* day nearly everyone will see how it is possible to maintain an economic surplus without exploitation—and where everyone generally contributes all they can and generally takes only what they “need”? Maybe *some* day the general reading, writing, critical and analytic (including mathematics) skills will be much higher than today? As Christina and the “librarian” surely know, good teaching is a lot more than upholding standards, but good teaching and compelling (but relatively non coercive) standards will always remain essential (mixed in with so many other types of “mothers of invention”* in the meaningful sustenance of the human project.
******************
******************
*as an ancient Roman meme observed “*Necessity* knows no law!” though as Plato and Frank Zappa had previously recognized, it is also the mother of creativity.
To some extent that’s true, but I limited my specific focus in this essay to students who are elite, taking classes considered advanced for their age as volunteers. There are no mitigating factors for cheating in that context; they chose the higher path and failed the test of honor. In general, pretty much everyone is capable of more literacy than the system demands, but few are able to meet the standards it envisions for everyone- hence the fraud.
As Kate Smith used to bellow (to tears of devotion and groans of mirth), “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
My teaching “career” had me dealing (mostly) with the underprivileged (although some had high income parents or parents who were college professors — and some were far brighter than I with interests immeasurably (by me) deep(?) into obscure veins of esoterica. So “cheating” in any harsh sense was never an issue for me. The occasions when a student presented a poem that I could prove to them was lifted from the internet were (as I remember now) opportunities for a mutual chuckle. I didn’t have to deal much (professionally) with either academic or business elites although I’ve observed the latter informally in venues such as yacht clubs where the level of casual alcohol consumption suggests a certain degree of struggle with stress, if not of conscience.
I am not trying to divert from the main discussion at all, rather validate the sentiment that teaching can sometimes feel like a pointless waste of time in a system that doesn’t really care if any learning is going on.
I don’t judge kids for not liking school, but I also don’t want to pretend to be a teacher if teaching isn’t what my job actually is. I suspect many people who’d otherwise make great teachers don’t either. I got paid 30k a year with crappy benefits, and only took the job because I wanted to work in a profession that positively contributed to something. After learning I couldn’t do that, I worked service industry for a bit and made a little more money doing that.
It makes me happy to read that the Librarian has found small ways to make his job feel more meaningful in a system which feels broken, and I respect that and empathize with the struggle.
You were right to think in those terms, and I have quit teaching jobs where I determined that literally no good was possible.
I thought your reply was brilliant (and not "really" a diversion from a digression but an observation that deepened a readers' perspective on the dilemma being decried).
Now you are AGAIN deepening and enlightening the discussion by focusing on teaching and learning: two quite mysterious (to me) processes. I worked in education for decades and NEVER met an individual who conveyed (to me) a convincing or particularly galvanizing "understanding" of either process.
When I felt "judgy," I was equally likely to perceive lacks and laxity in myself as in others, but I think learning and teaching can only be measured and evaluated quite imperfectly -- especially in the short term (and longer term SCHOOL learning is hard to isolate amidst all the other influences upon a student's cognitive, social, and emotional development. The institutions designed to measure and evaluate teaching DO have other priorities as well that often cause teachers and students to feel that it's "a pointless waste of time in a system that doesn't really care if ANY learning is going on". (and of course SOME of the systemic priorities are not only indifferent to learning and teaching but actually hostile.
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.
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.
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.
I strongly disagree. “Mr Hollands opus” was a beautiful celebration of the power of teachers. You are changing lives!!
Also an MD. I’ve had many premed students job shadow me, and the thought of what awaits them in corporatized medicine gives me pause. My Dad was a doctor, so I went into it with some foreknowledge, although the profession has been transformed beyond what he would recognize.
And yet, for the few students who have that desire to embrace lifelong learning, not just skate by or check boxes, and help others in a rare fashion, I have to encourage them. Lord knows that we will need a Remnant in medicine more and more as things slide. I feel that I owe it to my Dad and the real mentors in medicine that I had.
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.
*Albert Jay Nock smiles from Heaven.*
https://mises.org/mises-daily/isaiahs-job
The best essay in the English language; always good for bolstering flagging motivation in writing for The Remnant.
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.
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.
That first note:
"I am an English teacher..."
(bangs head on desk)
I am homeschooling my children. As my eldest creeps up on his teen years, I have bouts of insecurity. Who am I? Am I the best we can do for his education? Can we get him to college level by ourselves?
Then, I see things like this post. We're OK. My kids will be OK. By my count, 50% of people who currently *make their livings writing* do not know the difference between "rein" and "reign"... and aren't even embarrassed about it. No, it's not good enough that my kids are in the 99th percentile on quality of education among their peers. That's too low a bar. No, we can't give them the best education they are capable of completing. But it is the best education available to them, and for us, that will suffice.
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 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.
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.
Wow. I was drawn into this so much I resented the microwave telling me my coffee was once again warm enough to enjoy. Thank you! Thank you for honoring the Lord with your service to your family and your genuine concern for your students despite their apathy and their lack of belief in themselves to do great things.
This was one section that had me giving a standing ovation in my mind:
"Most teachers choose board games or some discussion group. I teach Biblical Greek. Hardly anyone wants to do it, but that’s the plan, really. Since it’s the only thing I do that attracts pure volunteers with no expectation of reward, I take advantage of that to offer something especially worthwhile. Those few who show up are exactly who I’m looking for. We spend the semester going over as much as I can, and the last thing we read is the Parable of the Sower. The sower scattered seeds even knowing some would land on barren rocks, while others would get choked by weeds. That didn’t matter; the sower’s efforts were for those few shoots that would mature and bear fruit. Everything else was worth putting up for for the sake of that end."
We have unschooled are boys from the beginning. It was an uphill climb to defend our choice and give reasons in support of it. Some minds were opened, most were too entrenched in the "this is how we do it" tradition. Today, our oldest (17) is working a full time construction job with a boss who is incredible - not only a man of God but a wise mentor as well. This is his senior year. He is struggling through many facets but he comes home each weekend with a newfound respect for his work and himself. It's beautiful. Our youngest (13) is currently working to author and illustrate a book series that is fun, engaging and teaches biblical values. He's in 7th grade. I wish I could bottle the joy my son's bring me while also encouraging parents to put in the hard work because the dividends cannot be measured.
Cheers.
May God richly bless you and your family for the work you do and the love for others that motivates it. We are in strange times. I am not a well-educated man and your writing and insights are helpful and inspiring to me - think of me as a student at a distance who appreciates what you do. Stay strong brother. I will pray for you at church this morning.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for sowing those seeds. Some of them will sprout.
I can sneer at those kids who use AI to cheat, but recently my own son, who graduated college 2 years ago, told me he rarely did the assigned reading for high school AP English. Everyone was getting summaries from Schmoop or whatever online grade-saver was in vogue then. And here I was thinking he actually read Emerson and Thoreau.
When I challenged him on this, he basically argued that so-called “advanced” HS coursework was just another required bullet point for the college “resume.” And since that “resume” also demanded a depth of (and success in) extra-curriculars and volunteer work, it made sense for him to minimize his time & effort in AP English and direct it elsewhere.
The college admissions system is cynical and designed so as to promote cynicism. I could see that based on the essay prompts so many schools issued the year my kids applied. So many schools wanted to know what applicants had done to build community or fight racism. The prompts themselves clearly signaled the answers admissions was looking for, and I suspect many applicants responded with fake narratives. No wonder the young view education as gamesmanship - that’s what it’s become.
The part that makes me saddest is that they think they’re getting over on the system when they’re really just shortchanging themselves. Never has there been a society more willing to trade its birthright for soup.
The essence right here
Speaking as someone who has taught around the world, first in Canada, then in Japan and now in Quebec I can say that though many students want to learn the ultimate problem is always the administrators and those in charge.
I've had to almost flee from one principal who would sniff me, and make passes for some reason. This is the same one, who once told me, 'the kids in my school aren't smart enough to appreciate Tolkien, so don't give them anything advanced to read and no homework or anything. English is too hard for them.' Then once I start giving them their lessons, I'm finding them picking up the material and grammar quickly enough, to perfect the rules quickly enough (a lot of it is review as many of my predecessors in my post as English teacher were frankly dumber than any kid, and didn't teach them anything for 5 years from Grade 1 to 6). What's so fascinating was that before I was let go, I had come up with a plan to finish the curriculum material by March so that the kids could read the authors they love so much in English (namely Tolkien or the Volsungs' Saga for some reason).
Some of them had literacy problems due to dislexia, but within three weeks were catching up to their reading and literacy levels. Yet the principal objected to this, as did the vice-principal. Meanwhile the other teachers were approving and thinking I was going too easy on them kids and going too slow. It was looking like they'd be at Tolkien though by Feb.
This was my latest venture into teaching. I'm not the best teacher, but public schools from what I can discern in Quebec are a disaster, in which the teacher tries to convey something, the kids love learning and reading and the school-board and management try to stiffle it. Not just through incompetency but also out of genuine malice.
It has been an honestly disheartening experience, not just for the sexual harassment and physical threats when I shot her down, but also due to the fact my students are gifted learners and learning quick, yet the principal utterly DESPISES them and wants them to 'learn slower and more at their level', when their lessons aren't even at the grade 6 level. Only their history classes impressed me, and I felt had been improved since my time as a kid, but still it could have used a little more focus on the Classics and Medieval period of France but eh, at least they were learning 500-600 years of history of Quebec/France from grade 2-6.
So to summarize; public schools be a nightmare everywhere. Quebec's are a shit-show, but not as bad I think as the Anglosphere. The Japanese school had kids willing to learn but the adults were convinced the students are stupid and shouldn't learn quick, and that they should sucker as much cash as possible out of them (this was a Conversation School).
Over-all, teaching in the private sphere might be best, though speaking personally I'm going back for a quick course and the hope to change career haha. So definitely understand those teachers of yours trying to dissuade you Celaeno.
It’s a harder job, for various reasons, than most people realize. The sexual harassment stuff was the subject of another essay of mine.
Yeah, in some ways it can be easy in others tough as nails.
But on the bright side all the other teachers (save one) have come out in my defence and dislike her apparently.
The thing is, I don’t know how far this will go and contrary to what a lawyer friend suggested, I don’t feel comfortable spreading counter-rumours. So I’ve been drummed out.
But all’s good, I might soon have an offer teaching literature elsewhere, and just in case am back in college at the encouragement of a friend for a course that could lead to a steady position.
After my 1st-year university exams 25+ years ago, rather amazed by my results, I said to one of my tutors, "Do you think I could do a PhD and actually become a lecturer?" and she expostulated, "Oh but there are so many other things you can do!" She was a great tutor but already regarded academia as nothing but a degree factory; she's now about to retire and thoroughly hates it.
It turns out there was nothing else I could do, so I ended up doing minimum wage temp jobs then TEFL, shit outcome but I wouldn't have lasted five minutes in academia, I would have been fired for saying something "inappropriate", Academic Agent-style, or for calling my students dullards & clods and thrashing them with my belt or, at the least, stuffing them in cupboards.