The Schools That Never Was

Here’s a confession: Though I’m very pleased and often amazed that I get to keep teaching kids and giving Orff workshops and occasionally perform jazz piano (House Concert coming up!) and lately have had a few chances to talk on low-level TV, radio and at showings of The Secret Song film, I’m always hungry for more. One audience I’ve rarely had and would love to have are school parents/teachers/administrators. The way I’m put together, I often put together such talks before anybody has ever invited me—and most likely won’t. 

 

In one such talkless talk, I began by the most important fact of neuroscience that every human being should consider. How the brain stem designed for fight, flight or freeze in the face of a clear and present danger can be overtaxed and debilitating when burdened with constant unclear and imagined danger. In real emergencies, the body/heart/mind is flooded with the necessary hormones to gather the needed strength, speed or strategy to survive the threat. When it passes— the bear ambles off into the woods— all is returned to its normal functioning state. 

 

But when the threat is imagined or anticipated, when we steel ourselves for being shamed by our teacher or bullied by our classmates or betrayed by our politicians, we begin to live in a constant state of fear, stress and anxiety and our bodily system is in a state of low-grade emergency which blocks it from clear thinking, compassionate feeling, physical health and robustness. We re-act defensively, are vulnerable to muddled conspiracy theory thinking, are either frozen with depression or taking flight into addiction’s temporary escapes or fight with blame, anger and hate speech. 

 

When it comes to schools, parents who are unconscious of their stress and anxiety about their children’s future begin to blame teachers or rant at PTA meetings or worst of all, start sweeping books off the library shelves. Administrators feed the culture of fear and confusion to reign when they allow kids to run the show and tell them anything that makes them uncomfortable will be investigated. Teachers are walking on eggshells, terrified of offending kids, parents or school boards. Education as the grand adventure of inquisitive investigation, spirited dialogue around opposing views, sharpening critical thought on the whetstone of controversy is banished to the basement of the brain, sitting in a dark corner amidst the spider webs and abandoned bric-a-brac cowering in fear. 

 

“And so, fellow parents, teachers and administrators,” I continue in my imaginary talk, “let’s restore education to its higher purpose with these four simple, but courageous steps.

 

1) Let’s acknowledge we’re all anxious—parents, teachers, administrators, kids. It’s not our fault that the world is pressing in us all in this way, but it is our choice as to how to react to it and it is within our power to walk ourselves out of fear into a more sustainable state of being.

 

2) Teachers, let’s look at how we either feed or deflect stress and anxiety by the way we organize our classes, by what we teach, how we teach, why we teach. Let’s watch the children for the signs that we are putting too much weight on their shoulders and equally the signs that they are free and unencumbered, brimming with curiosity, confidence and joy. 

 

3) Parents and administrators, let’s go back to simple talk. Yes, we will all mess up and each time, it’s an opportunity for compassionate and courageous conversation minus the legal shadow or the cancel culture or the social media call-out. Let’s watch the teachers for their own sense of agency and freedom to teach to their passion and give them the support they need.

 

4) For all of us, let’s consider “What’s the opposite of stress and anxiety?”  Anything that welcomes us, makes us feel valued, known and part of something beautiful and larger. Let’s not just learn how to react better, but how to pro-act better."

 

As Will Rogers once quipped, “Schools ain’t the way they used to be and they never was.” 

We know so much about how to make them so much better than they used to be with those desks in rows and teacher with cane in hand. But now we have all the politically correct desks in rows in our way of thinking about what can or cannot be said or discussed (from both sides of the political spectrum) and the social media put-down is the new cane in hand. We can do so much better.

 

Shall we begin?