Notes From The Education Underground: The TeachWonk Diaries

Public Education...
When I was a KidWonk way back when, one of the many groups that I liked to listen to was named Pink Floyd. They were a rock group. Their specialty was, and still is, known as "acid rock." Presumably, it was named this because many of their listeners where wasted on L.S.D.

In 1979, Pink Floyd released an album called, "The Wall." It sold millions of copies. One of the featured songs was called, "Another Brick In The Wall." This sort of became an anthem for the generation that I attended high school with.

One of the logos created to promote the album is the crossed hammers that you see above. In a cartoon short, we see the hammers slowly marching in formation. These hammers all look the same, they all marched in lock-step. Slowly, dozens of them marched across the television screen, accompanied by very ominous music.

At the time, many thought that those hammers were supposed to symbolize the impersonal nature of public education.

The music was intoxicating, the imagery thought-provoking. But like so many things in our lives, it was a "phase" of my growing-up process. Soon, I began listening to other styles of music. I graduated from college, moved away, got a job, and developed other priorities.

Then, for the first time in many years, I began thinking of those hammers again this week. Slowly marching across my television screen, in lockstep. To the sound of very ominous music.

Teachers in public education are being made to look and behave like those animated hammers. With the emphasis on federally mandated testing and the loss of local control over curricula in favor of federally-imposed standards, classroom teachers are slowly losing their status as thinking professionals.

Because of the wide implementation of scripted curricula, teachers have begun to look and sound the same. They are now expected to teach in lock-step.

Many teachers feel like they belong to an impersonal system, that is slowly squeezing-out any trace of individuality. Just like those hammers.