[lbo-talk] choices [was: trash talking the lumpenproletariat]

[joanna]

Every experience I have had with children throughout my life has led me 
to conclude that children are hard wired to learn. They want to learn; 
they want to master reality; they want to measure up; they want to 
create. They always, always want to take the next step, providing they 
feel reasonably secure in where they are presently.

Schools are basically designed to crush that impulse, to humiliate, and 
to control. I never knew what boredom was until I went to school. I 
spent a good part of 1st and 2nd grade in the corner...sometimes on my 
knees...even though I was a straight A student. A significant proportion 
of teachers and parents have absolutely no respect for children. They 
actually think that children are empty, void....until they get filled up 
with whatever the current ideology tells you you have to fill them up 
with. And then they're supposed to feel grateful for that.

None of the children I have worked with have any problem "respecting 
authority" so long as that respect is reciprocated with the teacher's 
respect for them and understanding of them.

Joanna