I was once listening to the radio when I heard the moderator say, “I don’t know if you remember in school when you studied the various rhetorical devices …” and then he went on to list a few. I could not help but scowl. This otherwise well-informed gentleman was totally out of touch with what was being taught in urban schools today. Ask these students what rhetoric is and you will get blank stares.

In my experience teaching and observing first grade classes I have seen a mind-numbing curriculum of drawing, coloring and cutting out and gluing shapes and pictures. Even more disparaging was being bored to near suicide with absolutely meaningless readings. Even in first grade there can be a more sophisticated curriculum than the drivel currently available. I can understand how people might disagree but I will set you straight in another post. Let’s talk about something we both agree on.

While subbing in High Schools, (we are talking 14 to 18 year olds) I was shocked to discover the first grade curriculum was still in vogue. Walking into some classes I would marvel at an entire wall covered with posters bearing students’ names decorated by markers, crayons and glitter. One senior class proudly displayed posters about Malcolm X. I asked one of these seniors if they had read his autobiography, the answer was no. “Listen bro,” I said, “do you know what I would do if someone tried to sell me on coloring a poster as a worthy educational exercise?” “What?” He asked. “I would tell him to go to hell.” I replied. He responded with “I never thought of it like that!” which really tells it all. Many of these students don’t get a chance to think about what they are doing. Everyone just does what they are told and takes it for granted that this is the path to success. This is reinforced by parents, teachers, the media and the community at large.

I can understand how making a poster can be a marketable skill, however, there is no graphic design in the curriculum, no training in the various resources that a designer could use, no professional guest teachers; nothing but mindless activities with no goal or purpose. It’s all busy work. Lest you think that this is only present in “bad” urban schools. I have subbed in one of the top public schools in my state and the English class’s assignment was, surprise surprise, to finish a poster for a movie they were watching. The assignment for the seniors was a bit more sophisticated, however: create a poster using a Latin quote.

Aside from the preference for poster production by uncreative teachers who are out of touch with the real world of work there exists another issue that cannot be blamed on teachers: the English curriculum. I have sat in a class observing a bunch of juniors reading a book round robin. It was a presumably an inspirational story about cheese. Yes, I said cheese but not the edible kind (I was confused as well.) Let me remind you these are high school students. Why aren’t they reading some great classic instead of reading kiddy absurdity?

In one eighth grade class I discovered that they were reading the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. I was impressed. I had read it and it was fantastic; truly a must read for everyone. My excitement was short-lived. It was abridged! The students did not even know it was abridged (or what abridged meant) and it wasn’t even clearly stated anywhere in the book! The absolute worst thing was that the main idea of this book about the abolition of slavery, the very principle, the very epiphany that Douglass had reached in the most dramatic point of his life, the moment when Douglass resolved to become a free man was edited out!!! Shock … (no awe.)

When I pointed some of these things out to the students they had no idea. When I said they could discuss these issues with their teacher they said they were too afraid because the teacher would fail them and was a bully. I spoke to the principle, who, being an African American might have some more respect for the sanctity of this classical masterpiece. Her response was that of a mindless bureaucrat who was totally unconcerned about the quality of the education at her school. Rather she was more interested in the smooth administration of the correctional … er educational facility in her charge. Prior to her promotion she was an English teacher, (small world) my 7th grade English teacher. Imagine the irony.

By the way, the major epiphany edited out of the Frederick Douglass autobiography was about resisting slavery and oppression. How appropriate that in an oppressive authoritarian institution such a thing is omitted. Read it for yourself:

“This battle with Mr. Covey [the slave driver] was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself. He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping me, must also succeed in killing me.”

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