nearly twenty years teaching taught me that achieving communication and creating solidarity with teachers was a much bigger problem than with students, whether in classrooms, as part of an academic senate or at union meetings...
the notion held by some teachers that students are too simple or ignorant, that it's all but impossible to penetrate their noggins and let a little wisdom in, is much bigger than a conflcit in the education business ...it's apparent all over progressive and left circles, and here from time to time - no particular poster in mind...
"they", the people, are seen as dumb, stupid, ignorant, for not seeing or understanding what "we" find so obvious...it's impossible to help students - or anyone else - learn, increase knowledge, expand consciousness or even communicate clearly, if there is little or no respect for them, or they're seen as just too dense to even hope to understand ... and that's true for just about everyone else we deal with when we are not paid help...
but we get paid for teaching, while the other disrespect is usually offered on a voluntary basis...but both help lead to the same conclusion: a really screwed up society, with some members of whatever class they think they are in acting as though all others are just too dense to understand "class", or that they are members of a working - or student? - class which needs to get smarter, somehow...who will help them get smarter? churches? synagogues? right wing radio and tv? right now, those seem to have more power and influence than schools or political groups...wonder why?
we are dealing with a ballot measure here ( california) that is clearly aimed at a public which thinks teachers are some pampered group that gets more than it deserves...it would lengthen the period for getting tenure, and it may very well pass because of public attitudes - outside of teaching union circles - that see teachers, like media and government, as "other" forces, not clearly understood, but seen as overpaid, over secure, and working against, not for, the interests of common people...
sadly, that basic notion is too often correct...
fs