I sat and read through a story coming out of a region....about 20 miles east of Oakland, California.
So....there are these students at a school district....who were given some kind of presentation that they would be listed in some way along four groups:
"Type of Oppression," "Variable," "Non-Target Groups (Privilege)" and "Target Groups (Oppression)."
In simple terms.....you would end up being ID'ed as oppressed or privileged.
Parents getting the same presentation? No.
With the student-teacher 'package'....someone had obviously done a lot of extra work....to explain how you might be oppressed. There was a listing to say types (oppression included racism, sexism, genderism, classism, elitism, religious oppression, militarism, ageism, adultism, heterosexism, ableism, xenophobia and linguistical types of oppression).
I sat and paused over this. To be honest....if you dealing with me as a high school student...particularly around the 10th grade....I probably would have sat there for a good long hour trying to contemplate what was said, and if the teacher was compromised in some way (being half-witted for example). I might have asked the teacher if they were oppressed in some way.
This would have been the point where I realized I had progressed as far as I could with high school, and it was time to test out via the GED program.
I tried to contemplate how it was for me in the 1970s....being either privileged or oppressed.
I had roughly five pairs of jeans (for school or work)....with one set of Sunday church clothing. I'm not sure if that qualifies me as privileged or oppressed.
We did serve ice cream occasionally at the table....but it was the cheap stuff. To be honest....at the A&P or Piggly Wiggly....that was about all they sold in those days. I'm not sure if that qualifies me as privileged or oppressed.
If you asked us to define elitism.....we probably would have thought you were using a eastern Tennessee dialect, and mispronouncing athleticism.
If you had gotten onto some linguistic oppression chatter.....we would have all thought we were oppressed....mostly because we were speaking correctly, and the non-residents were using a weird type of English accent.
Confusing times? I'd suggest we are headed to a point where you might want to get as much as possible done by the 10th grade and just GED yourself out of school.
4 comments:
I wish someone would explain why children are sent to school, from pre-school age thru 18 years old. 12 to 13 years at school is a very, very long time in a person's life. They teach the same subjects, year after year, reading, writing, arithmetic, science and history. Why does it take 12 years???? Then after spending 12 years in school and graduating, nobody really considers them to be exceptionally intelligent! No, just the opposite, they are considered to have a basic education and no real skills necessary to join the workforce. As an employer, if I had an employee that had been employed for 12 years, and after those 12 years, the employee still only had a basic understanding of the tasks needed to perform the job, I would fire the employee.
The term "Limited Skill Set", comes to mind.
Spending 12 years in school, that is what I call "OPPRESSION".
Somewhere in the 11th grade, I came to a point where I felt nothing much new was being offered in school. I think if you'd offered me a route where I could test out....do a 'free' year at the community college, I would have done that. In today's atmosphere....yeah, I'd be ready to go by the 9th grade.
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