Re: theater and ambassadorships

[Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>]

On 3/20/21 2:29 PM, Robert wrote:
> To: Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>
> 
>   > From: Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>
>   > Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2021 01:46:39 -0700
>   >
>   > And finally he says that he didn't deserve this well-paying job
>   > in the trenches, that there are people who are called to teaching, and
>   > they should get those jobs.
> 
> Boy, this story is deeply depressing.  Is the only way forward to have an
> upheaval of the system?  Or, is it up to the lucky individuals who get to
> pay for their kids to be kept separate from the system?

Yes, it's depressing.  The part about being called to teaching or not 
was troubling to me in particular because I always thought of myself as 
called to teaching, but when I started student teaching in a SF school 
full of poor kids, I couldn't take it, and fled to a Marin suburb.  And, 
ultimately, I couldn't even take Sudbury for very long.

Teaching poor kids for a long time requires either an amazing strength 
of character, so you can simultaneously care about the individual kids 
and not take their failures or attacks personally, or an emotional 
withdrawal and becoming a terrible teacher, which is what Mr. Parent 
did, except that even then he didn't stay for long.  Even Jonathan 
Kozol, the patron saint of teachers of poor kids, didn't stay in the 
classroom forever.

And yes, what schools need is the abolition of poverty.

> (We recently had a break-in and the guy was arrested and, presumably, is
> still in jail (I doubt that this guy could afford bail).  But, within the
> context of your story, is this guy just one of those people with ADHD who
> just end up being losers all their lives and are just condemned to suffer
> by our societal norms?)

Your particular loser may not be ADHD.  (Conversely, the rich ADHD kids 
end up doing fine, or at least not being petty criminals.)  Poverty is 
the fault of society, not a matter of inherent disability of the 
individual poor people.  But yes, the petty criminals are themselves 
victims, even as they are pushed into being enemies of, mostly, other 
poor people.  (The rich criminals, of which there are plenty, aren't 
victims and aren't driven by desperation.)

There's no good short-term solution.  We can't not lock up the 
criminals, in general, although when people are willing to invest a lot 
of effort and resources on individual criminals, it's sometimes possible 
to rescue one.  Perhaps millennials-and-younger activists, who tend to 
have a good understanding of the systemic roots of social problems, will 
manage a revolution, but I confess I'm not optimistic.

Capitalism can't last forever, because of its ecological damage.  What 
comes next won't be pleasant, but maybe in the very long run the 
survivors will build a better society.

Sorry... I wish I had a more cheerful story to tell you.