Another Brick in the Wall

Of course, you all recognize that title from Pink Floyd's The Wall.  As someone whose career involved the teaching of English, I never liked the double negative in the song's signature line, We don't need no education.  Nevertheless, as a protest song against rigid schooling, it had my attention.

The Wall was issued in 1979.  As I remember, the late 70s were a pretty good time for education, at least in these parts.  Where education is today?  Not so good.  (At least, in my opinion.)

Today, I drove my visiting son up to Burlington, Vermont, so that he could reunite with some college buddies and do some skiing.  On the drive back, I stopped in Saratoga Springs for a visit with some dear friends.  I met George forty years ago when we were teaching in the same school district.  Ruth joined us a couple of years later.  During and after an absolutely lovely dinner, we talked a lot about the good old days when we were all members of the English Department, with George at the helm as department chair.  At the risk of sounding cliche, those were the good old days.  We were the ones who decided what we were going to teach, unlike today, when curricula is dictated by companies who reap profit from telling public schools what to do.  We took care of one another, we supported and inspired one another, we learned from one another.  And our students benefited from that homespun connectivity.  I happen to be friends with many of those former students on social media, and they seem to have turned out quite well, despite the lack of interference from bureaucracy during their education.

So what happened?  Why did things change so drastically?  I could offer some hypotheses, but they would be political, and I don't want to go there in this blog.  Urban Dictionary defines another brick in the wall this way:  An event that has caused you to become more alienated and distant with something.  Well, that seems to describe education these days, I think.

But I'm looking at another definition, an opposite definition.  I'm thinking of bricks labeled poetry, art, music, philosophy, literature, humanism, compassion, kindness, peace.  I'm laying out those bricks to form a foundation.  From there, students are free to create a life, not a wall.  It worked at one time; why can't it work now?

I will never be able to wrap my head around what has happened to education, but I will always be in love with the idea of educating:  laying a foundation of good things from which people can create and share and inspire.  If only it were still true.