stuff is messed up; empathy and pedagogy

As we briefly mentioned in the conclusion to Anarchist Pedagogies, I wanted to talk about empathy and pedagogy in the class room setting. With the current state of the world, students are facing an unprecedented amount of pressures coming from the shortcomings and failures of previous generations and societies.

The pressure is ever more monumental now, as students in America deal not only with a world that more often than not fails to recognize and empathize with their ideas and thoughts, shunning them as too young to understand anything;

what’s going on with their bodies,

what’s going on with their governments,

what’s going on with the world,

what’s going on with the environment.

As the times have become more divisive than ever, the students of this generation are left picking up the pieces.

This is more than evident when you look at the current protests and encampments set up by the students at UCLA, Yale, and Columbia University, as well as many other campuses across the world. Where tensions have grown and state violence has entered protests, fascist forces crack down on the ideals our nation previously purveyed such as free speech, right to protest, and right to demonstration. News media twists the narrative to attack the young activists as racist, hateful anarchists. Both counter-protesters and government military police attempt to beat the young and bright futures into submission.

This is not new. What we’re seeing here is not the first time we’ve seen protest, as our country has a long history with organized demonstration. We have witnessed many changes over the course of history, and it’s not much of a stretch to say that throughout those times, the young generation and student movements have historically often found themselves on the side we now view as correct.

This is no different with Gaza.

Palestinians are currently suffering a genocidal apartheid regime by the hands of the Israeli military state, of course through the investment and funding provided by American taxpayers and private institutions. The US geopolitical interests side with Israel and support this genocide due to our relationship with Israel being that of an American puppet. Without Israel, the US believes it would need an Israel within the Middle East, America continues to fund them to keep a diplomatic pressure and presence within the region.

The issues going on with Palestine is essentially the litmus test, it is the fundamental baseline for empathy and understanding, a mandate of humanity. The lens of history points sharply at this moment, in the words of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

So in a moment such as this, how and what do you do to teach and prepare the students in this position? How do you accommodate the many different students mental states, personal struggles, and learning styles while simultaneously making forward progress in the classroom?

Mixed with the 2000s era imagery and video editing, the offspring speak to the struggle of the people growing up in modern day America in their song “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, especially coming from the abject poverty and hostile environments on the developing mind. This particularly speaks to me, as this is no different from my hometown and the downfall of the post-industrial Appalachian region, many of the friends I had and grown up with in high school suffered the same fates and circumstances as those within the song by The Offspring:

“When we were young, the future was so bright
The old neighborhood was so alive
And every kid on the whole damn street
Was gonna make it big and not be beat

Now the neighborhood’s cracked and torn
The kids are grown up, but their lives are worn
How can one little street swallow so many lives?

Jamie had a chance, well, she really did
Instead she dropped out and had a couple of kids
Mark still lives at home ‘cause he’s got no job
He just plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot

Jay committed suicide
Brandon OD’d and died
What the hell is going on?
The cruelest dream, reality

Chances thrown
Nothing’s free
Longing for, used to be
Still it’s hard, hard to see
Fragile lives
Shattered dreams.”

— The Offspring, The Kid’s Aren’t Alright (1998)

For people that come from this region, getting away and pursuing higher education, or escaping the abject poverty and conditions of the area alone is an accomplishment when there are little to no support systems to rehabilitate the crushing effects of those born into families affected by drugs, abuse, and neglect. The cycle consumes the next generation, conditions them in a culture unwilling to change, leaving the area stuck in the past.

When I travel back into this past, I feel as if an outsider looking in, a mixed and complicated layer of feelings falls over me. This is part of my story, which is of course only a drop in the bucket of the many various struggles and conditions experienced across America as a whole. I can’t bring this up in good conscience without recognizing my own privileges even within this region, as I have had more safety nets available to me than most in the area. I cannot even begin to imagine the struggles and increased difficulty introduced when we implement factors such as marginalization and oppression.

All this creates an even more prevalent need for understanding and mutual recognition within the classroom. As the protests rev up across the states, professors find themselves in the middle of a conflict that not only affects their classroom enviroment, but their personal lives as well. Support(or lack of support) for the situation could create a target on your back, be it from the student body of protestors or the administration.

Yet still we see many professors out on the lawns within the encampments, putting their bodies and livelihoods on the line for the sake of their students as well as their cause. On top of these, we’ve seen professors dedicated to continuing the act of learning and education within this struggle, holding open classrooms in the encampment and welcoming even other students to join. Easily it can be understood that to be a professor in this time provides an invaluable learning opportunity to students on what it means to be an activist and how to operate within that environment.

Students are in constant crises.

The mental health of students has never been at an all time low such as now, in fact we’ve seen unprecedented rises in stress, anxiety, and depression within the student base. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Poor Mental Health and How it Impacts Adolescent Well Being, we’ve seen more than 4 in 10 (42%) students that felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third (29%) experienced poor mental health. This includes more than 1 in 5 (22%) students seriously considering attempting suicide, and 1 in 10(10%) going through with their attempts. (CDC, Youth Risk Surveillance Data Summary, 2011-2021)

Because of this, students are spending signifigantly less time on their studies and instead dealing with a plethora of world problems weighing them down. Is it the responsibility of the classroom facilitator within this environment to foster a relationship built around understanding these mental and and emotional needs, and adjusting accordingly?

I believe this is essential in the modern style of teaching. Approaches such as ungrading provide more breathing room in the classroom, emphasizing personal growth in a pass/ fail system. On top of this, the role of the teacher(in my eyes) is much better suited as a guiding post, aiding in the personal growth of each individual and providing guidance to each according to their individual need in the classroom.

When noticing other approaches to professorship, often I hear that becoming “too close” to your students and not “maintaining boundaries” can lead to a lack of respect and acknowledgement in a class setting. I find myself heavily disagreeing with this, as I view the classroom as a collaboration between the “student” and the “teacher” rather than a strict hierarchy of the “expert” who’s authority within that classroom is absolute.

The problem with this style of education is that not every student within the classroom is capable of learning at the same pace, and some may not even be interested in learning the same style or approach to the topic. How do you engage a student within work they don’t enjoy or want to pursue, when there are other options in the same career field that could be applied in this situation?

Is it not better to engage the classroom as a community, in the pursuit of nurturing and learning together, as well as gaining mutual ground in the understanding of the chosen field in which we all dedicate our education to?

“Any gardener who should attempt to raise healthy, beautiful, and fruitful plants by outraging all those plants’ instinctive wants and searchings, would meet as their reward - sickly plants, ugly plants, sterile plants, dead plants.

The gardener will not do it; they will watch very carefully to see whether the plants like much sunlight, or considerable shade, whether they thrive on much water or get drowned in it... the plant will indicate itself to the gardener when he is doing the right thing...

If the gardener finds the plant revolts against these expirements, the gardener will desist at once, and try something else; if the gardener finds it thrives, the gardener will emphasize the initial treatment so long as it becomes beneficial.

But what the gardener will surely not do, will be to prepare a certain area of the ground all just alike, with equal chances of sun and moisture in every part, and then plant everything together without discrimination - might close together! - saying beforehand,

“If plants don’t want to thrive on this, they ought to want to; and if they are stubborn about it, they must be made to.””

— Voltairine De Cleyre, ibid., p.255

Closing Thoughts

So, when we’ve managed to deconstruct the authority and hierarchy inherent in the current educational system, what are we left with? As we’ve learned to rely on hierarchy and authority, we’ve also created an environment that infantilizes the youth in the school system. We view students as undeveloped and unprepared to tackle the real world problems and complicated topics of theory.

Yet I believe this perspective is misguided, especially when looking at the context of the modern movements. The students in the recent protests, for example, are by any and all means extremely intelligent both in their approach and setup of the encampments. They are building incredibly well engineered barricade and feeding systems, and ensuring a strong message and declaration of the movement carries through the noise in the mass media.

They carefully pick and choose who speaks to reporters, strategically planning their action and level of protest to stay within non-violent means and avoid negative media coverage. (which comes either way in the end, however remaining true to their goals and approach avoids losing the support of the general population.) What I find to be true instead is not a narrative based on a students readiness for complex topics and academic critical thinking based upon their age and experience; but instead one of the structures of the education system actively stunting this thinking in the attempt to push a more centralized and picked-through education.

The lack of autonomy in the modern students and generation is based around an approach that emphasized authorities values and a demand for respect. There is no trust placed in the hands of the student in this case, introducing grading systems and other forms of assignment to provide a “quota” and ensure the student is staying educated.

Ivan Ilych, a pronounced Austrian philosopher, created a pedagogical philosophy known as “Deschooling” or “Unschooling,” which is commonly associated with homeschooling and phasing a child out of the government educational system. The philosophy revolves around increased levels of trust and emotional investment in each individual student, allowing them to form their own self-autonomy. The relationship and hierarchy has always been seen as authoritarian, but through analysis and application of anarchist pedagogy as well as Deschooling philosophy, might it be possible to foster a more communicative relationship with the students we encounter within our careers, leaving a caring mark on them like we would on our own children?

Matthew Hern in a 1998 published book “Deschooling Our Lives” says this about the process of education;

“...(deschooling) is about relationships, and is the antithesis of professionalism. Genuine relationships are exactly what teachers are looking to avoid. It is what they call “unprofessional.” But if adults are willing to take the time to get to know the kids they are around really well, to spend large amounts of time with their children, to listen carefully to the needs and wants, and to understand what they are capable of, then trust can’t be far behind.”

— Matt Hern, Deschooling Our Lives, 1998

In cases such as the anarchist free school Paideia in Spain, this leads to self-governing and autonomous children aged from 5 to 16 capable of making choices for themselves.

The children within the school clean, create the food menus, order and cook the meals every day, participate in workshops of educational topics that are voted on in “asambleas” (assemblies called by the students), and when they leave and enter the government education system (since the school is not recognized as a real education, the students must leave at 16 or 17 and spend the last year in public school, taking a test to prove profeciency) they often score well over average within the schooling system.

This is of course, with little to absolutely no “adult” intervention, instead the teachers in this case help guide students who are struggling within the system and prepare workshop plans. This isn’t to say that there will never be a bump in the road when adapting to and approaching this alternative system of education, let alone the discussion on how we even advocate for the transition to this system.

Where are the limits of what I can do while working in the state education system on the university level?

What actions can I take to begin fostering this environment with my would be future students?

These are questions I look forward to searching for the answers for as I dive more into my own pedagogical process.

That being said, I truly believe that the implementation of strategies can lead to a better and brighter future, where students actively participate in academia and are taken seriously. Alternatives to the educational system seem to be rising in popularity as students become more conscientious of the worlds issues and the struggles of the modern working class within a government such as America.

Once we realize just how badly stuff is messed up, we can begin to tackle the problems and create a better world. For now, the importance is making sure that todays students can make it to that world in one piece; that they are not crushed educationally, mentally, and physically along the way.

anarchist pedagogies

This is a review of the book Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education edited by Robert H. Haworth.

I think Anarchist Pedagogies created a revolution within my head.

Wait, let me explain. Essentially, I’ve been locked inside my own head. As I’ve grappled with what it means to be a masters candidate in design, I’ve found myself paralyzed when it came to making work for myself.

How do others perceive my work?

Asking questions such as “Is this worthy of a masters program?”

“What would David want me to do with this idea?”

“How should I make this from an academic perspective?”

These questions, as with the many others swirling within a spiral of how to be an “Ideal Student,” stunted my active growth and demonstrated my lack of autonomy within the creative space. I have grown dependent on the institutionalized mechanisms of education that have removed my ability to work for myself, waiting to be told what to do next or where to go.

It is this book that helped me to finally understand and unlock this mindset, and allowed me to create this packet and work for myself. Thus, as it is so fitting with the style of this packet and my new perspective, I will talk first about my thoughts on pedagogy, anarchy, the education system, and where I belong within the mechanisms controlling our lives.

The schooling system, especially within the United States of America, has systematically used its authority and power to create and foster not an education of critical thinking. Instead, the education is found most commonly as a tool at the disposal of the government, intended not to enrich an individual, but force them into complicity in their system. Placed in evenly spaced seats in a small room, students are forced to fit a mold made for everyone, with no regard for their individual learning abilities or preferences.

Teachers enforce rules such as raising your hand to use the bathroom, and not leaving your seat for any reason during class time. The right to speak is granted only by the authority, you may not chat with a classmate or even discuss a relevant class topic without permission. The curriculum is set by the state, ensuring students are taught a perspective that aligns with the thinking of their ruling classes.

The reasoning for this is quite clear; The American public is educated in this way to create a subservient and docile working class. Silent and unquestioning, the average student is taught from day one that the system in which they live and operate is the only true and correct way of being. Any other form of government or societal rule is below the American people, instilling the idea of American Exceptionalism, Individualism, and Nationalism.

The book Anarchist Pedagogies shares multiple essays from critical thinkers in the anarchist community attempting to introduce and provide insight onto the shortcomings of this system of education, as well as demonstrate alternatives educational models that could foster a more free and whole education while emphasizing the role of the educator and the student. However, something you may be wondering is how that really has anything to do with something as radical as “creating a revolution in my head.” To illustrate this, let’s unpack various quotes and ideas presented in the book that have helped me incredibly escape my creative rut.

If you find it hard to believe my claims on the intention of the schooling system to be used as a system of obedience, maybe it would help to see for yourself the words directly from Benjamin Rush. As a signer of the declaration of independence in the founding of our country, and considered the father of American Psychiatry, he would say this in his 1786 document “Thoughts upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic.” It reads as follows;

“In order more effectually to secure to our youth the advantages of a religious education, it is necessary to impose upon them the doctrines and discipline of a particular church.

Man is naturally an ungovernable animal, and observations on particular societies and countries will teach us that when we add the restraints of ecclesiastical to those of domestic and civil government, we produce in him
the highest degrees of order and virtue...

Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it...

In the education of youth, let the authority of our masters be as absolute as possible. The government of schools like the government of private families should be arbitrary, that it may not be severe. By this mode of education, we prepare our youth for the subordination of laws and thereby qualify them for becoming good citizens of the republic.

I am satisfied that the most useful citizens have been formed from those youth who have never known or felt their own wills till they were one and twenty years of age, and I have often thought that society owes a great deal of its order and happiness to the deficiencies of parental government being supplied by those habits of obedience and subordination which are contracted at schools...

From the observations that have been made it is plain that I consider it as possible to convert men into republican machines. This must be done if we expect them to perform their parts properly in the great machine of the government of the state. That republic is sophisticated with monarchy or aristocracy that does not revolve upon the wills of the people, and these must be fitted to each other by means of education before they can be made to produce regularity and unison in government...”

— Benjamin Rush, Thoughts upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic. (1786)

Although spoken 200 years ago, these fundamental ideas have never left the school systems and government. The advent of technology and the industrial revolution has even more so created a necessity of this system, as the internet allows more freedom to educate oneself and realized the problems hidden within the core of the education system.

Where does this everything connect?

Coming to the realization that this is the system in which I was raised gave me a whole bunch of questions in need of answering. Over time I found many answers to my existential crisis on my own education within the book, answers which brought me to recontextualizing the entire idea of my undergraduate education. In my undergrad, we were taught the highly capitalistic and economic version of what it means to fulfill the role of the graphic designer.

Classes focused on technical skills and client relationships, projects based themselves around corporate identity and visual communication. This is not to say that these are not important topics to learn, as after all, we still live inside a highly capitalistic system of economy and must find a way to commodify our skills and provides services deemed of monetary value. However as I reflect back on my education, I wonder what, if any, time I had to dedicate to myself or my own mission as an artist.

Personal “styles” meant nothing in the broad scheme, as corporations would look for flexible designer able to replicate what brand or style they already operated within as a conglomerate. What I felt was all to absent at the classroom setting was discussion on the theory and concept behind our ideas. Why did we spend so much time enforcing archaic design rules established and canonized by old white men that claimed that their form of design is “objectified” or “correct”?

Why did we not discuss the greater reasoning behind a decision, the reason behind our choices on a broader level. How do we feel about a specific idea or topic, and how does that affect our design practice? Often we see students falling within the camp of making whatever is “trendy” within the design space, or claims of a love for minimalism and clean aesthetics paired with overconsumption of online design through sites like Pinterest create a homogenous class design style. 20 portfolios walk out of the classroom with the same projects, same style, essentially the same work.

Breaking away from this idea can lead to punishment for experimentation, as what is not considered “good” design can be immediately rejected, students dogpile on the outcast of the class or the student who experimented receives a lower grade for their work(which in itself is a strong argument for the philosophy of ungrading). This creates a tension within the community of the classroom where students find themselves requiring to submit to “authority.” In the words of Joel Spring, a professor and activist writer;

“By attempting to teach automobile driving, sex education, dressing, adjustment to personality problems and a host of related topics, the school also teaches that there is an expert and correct way of doing all of these things and that one should depend on the expertise of others. Students in the school ask for freedom and what they receive is the lesson that freedom is only conferred by authorities and must be used “expertly.” This dependency creates a form of alienation which destroys peoples ability to act. Activity no longer belongs to the individual, but the the expert and the institution.”

— (Spring, 1998, pp. 26-27)

This moment, upon reading this exact quote, is when the entirety of my realization had set in.

Throughout my time and experience in education, I had constantly been taught that I must conform and fit within the acknowledgement of authority, be that the literal definition of authority in the form of a hierarchy between student and teacher, or a metaphorical, hidden authority that requires you to create art for the sake of others rather than yourself.

Students are removed of free will and autonomy through this process, nothing is created without the intention of proving worth or receiving validation from some sort of authoritarian figure. The teacher in this situation is not a gentle guide or helping hand to assist the process of learning, but instead the floor manager of a factory, ensuring that quotas are met and the workers(students) are kept in line.

That is exactly where I found myself caught up, as I transitioned to the world of VCFA, a school very similar in pedagogical process to the free schools I’ve been reading about, I had to venture outside of this authoritarian comfort zone in which I had not been required to think for myself.

My decisions were guided not by a pursuit of personal gain and enlightenment, but on whether or not it would be good to include in a packet, and whether my advisor (the authority) would view me as worthy and having met my quota. This line of thinking lead to personal stunted growth and a lack of understanding of how to create beyond the boundary lines. Every project and idea must be “valid” and “worthy”, and the projects must be large and perfectly researched and executed.

Enlightenment and the classroom.
(or, “Where the #$*! do we go from here?”)

Of course, no problem can be solved without the creation of another problem. In the tumultuous time we live in, and with the recent protests and encampments happening across the world at university campuses, we see a rise in dissent and confliction with the narrative told by the US governments.

However, even with the flak the university system is taking for it’s support of openly genocidal regimes and actively being fought against on that front, I still wonder how much ground we can clear in the fight for a more free and desirable educational system at a lesser cost. As someone who will be throwing myself into the fire of teaching at a University eventually, I worry that my research and line of thinking, as well as the pedagogy I am developing, will be seen as dangerous to the overall mission of the public schooling system of America.

Alternatively, I wonder what breakthroughs can be made to implement more of anarchistic and free schooling levels of thinking into a classroom as someone acting within the machine we are fighting against. The definition of Anarchism and the school of thought is so misunderstood within culture and media, viewed as violent and rowdy embodiments of teenage angst and punk ethos. I myself used to believe that as I leaned more towards other schools of thought in my lack of understanding.

What I’ve encountered instead is a truly welcoming community of critical thinkers dedicated to providing freedom and liberation from all forms of oppression. Communities of interesting and caring people who want desperately to make change in the world and recognize the system of oppression and suffering inherent within the capitalist structure of living.

My personal pedagogy as such grows and sides towards these lines of thought as I learn and flesh out what it means to teach in the modern age. Empathy and compassion, as well as understanding and mutualism are essential within the classroom to create an environment where every person is capable of growth and learning.

The act of teaching is also an act of learning, as every new student will present a new challenge or personality you will encounter, but what comes of developing a standoff-ish persona that pushes the students away? Mutual respect in the classroom must go both ways, as the role of the teacher will never stop continuing to be the role of the student as well.