#but like. i've rambled before abt creating deliberately contrary media analysis purely out of spite

[equalseleventhirds]

i know it’s been a few hours since i made the posts but i think what i was trying to say on some level was like, let kids be angry at a public education system which p often aims to turn them into docile workers and citizens with an unquestioning obedience to authority. don’t sit on your high horse post-public education and tell them all the wonderful independent thinking they’re ‘actually’ learning, when you are not in the classroom with them, you do not know what kind of teachers they have or what kind of things they are in fact being taught. let them have anger and criticism of authority figures who they see as too controlling of, quite literally, their personal thoughts and interpretations of things like literature, bcos honestly the ability to even think criticism towards an authority figure was one of the most important lessons i ever learned, and it was not part of the standard curriculum in my high school.

#i continue to have opinions on this narrative actually #but like. i've rambled before abt creating deliberately contrary media analysis purely out of spite #and yeah that's a weird hobby to have! but it started bcos my teachers told me there was One True Way to interpret any book we read in class #and i was actively punished for deviating from that One True Way EVEN when i had EVIDENCE #i was lucky enough to have contact with imo the only good english teacher in my high school #she never taught me she was in charge of the writing club i was in #and she actually taught us REAL literary criticism bcos she was also teaching us how to write #also her husband was a subversive type of history teacher and i was in his classes and i learned from him #but he was again one of those 'do not tell the principal i am teaching you this' teachers #i was incredibly lucky to learn this and to be so stubborn and spiteful that it stuck even when i was punished for it #a lot of kids DON'T get what i get #so when they go online and complain abt their teachers' narrow definitions of symbols or w/e #i am so so fucking pleased for them #i am so fucking happy that they HAVE that anger and that criticism #i hope they hold onto it #they do NOT need to be told from someone with zero context on their experience #that they shouldn't be complaining and that their teacher is actually right and actually helping them #you don't fucking know that. and even if you did know that? fuck off. let kids be angry. #they don't have much control over their lives of COURSE they're angry