Christopher D. Sessums :: Blog :: This Machine Kills Fascists

No, I’m not talking about Woody Guthrie’s guitar. I am actually speaking of teaching, learning, and computing.

In his latest post George Siemens notes:

Learning, as probably the most critical human activity for the development of better (defined as low crime, available health care, standard of living) societies is the structures of learning. The challenge we face is that our approaches to learning (as I've often said) is that our structures don't meet our needs, our society, or our global world. Learning, perceived as an activity outside of the structure of daily living, is simply not working. Learning happens continually (as natural as breathing, as constant as a beating heart). We need a new vision for learning. I've tackled it from the end of connectivism, but it is depressing to see that so many organizations continue to see learning as an add-on, not an enabler to better functioning on every level of life and business. One message that is coming through, in health care (and I would posit in education), is that the technology is at a sufficient level to make huge changes and transformations. Potential and capacity are not the missing elements - vision and will are the bottlenecks.

From a critical pedagogical perspective, Siemens’ thoughts strike a chord in me.

Vision and will. Both involve a great deal of imagination.

At a micro, meso, and macro level, education is a value proposition. A good education opens social, cultural, political and economic doors. In today’s world (i.e., the one I am most familiar with), a good education grants one access to a club where membership is limited to serve the will of those holding power. In this sense, those who hold power, the people Freire dubs “oppressors,” are unconscious of their domineering behavior; it is simply the way of the world, the way things are, like it or not.

Look at the employee roster of the top companies in Forbes magazine. Look at the highest levels of government. Read through the resumes of those in charge in the U.S. and abroad. I am willing to bet you will see in each of them a clear pattern of social capital and continuous educational grooming.

Nietzsche posited a will to power, in which living things are not just driven by the mere need to stay alive, but by a greater need to wield and use power, to dominate others, and to make them weaker. Nietzsche believed this will was the basic, instinctual driving force of nature through which all livings things interpret the world.

Although Dylan Thomas never spoke of a will to power directly, it lays at the heart of the poem The force that through the green fuse drives the flower. This will runs through our veins, dries the mouth of streams, blasts the roots of trees, and ultimately is both our creator and destroyer.

Normally I am not so pessimistic. I try to temper my natural optimism with a dose of realism. And like Siemens, I will continue to work towards empowering others to think, act, reflect and become in a Freirian sense. And like Siemens, I believe we, as individuals, as communities, as nations, need to wrest control back from those who serve to abuse it.

I regularly dream of a massive teacher boycott -- an On the Waterfront stance where a community of teachers refuses to work until adequate conditions are granted for students, teachers, and staff. This revolution needs to be one where we do not simply change who is in charge and go back to business as usual. Freire calls this a fear of freedom. Siemens calls it the bottleneck of imagination.

To surmount oppression, people must critically recognize its causes, so that by transformative action they can create a new situation, one that is built upon the pursuit of a fuller humanity. (Freire, 1993, p. 29.)

  While I agree with Siemens that what is needed is vision and will, I believe we need a few more ingredients to over come the tragic dilemma that is limiting learning opportunities. One such additional ingredient is the ability for people like you and me to take a risk. As Arthur O'Shaughnessy writes in his famous Ode:

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

As educators, we are all music makers. And the struggle for freedom from oppression requires taking a risk, risking something new and never before experienced. This, in and of itself, creates fear. Yet without risk, without a belief in something better, history is destined to repeat. It is a matter of becoming, a re-birthing. And as long as the oppressed remain unconscious of the tendency to take on the role of their oppressor, liberation is impossible.

So what are the next steps in uncorking this revolution?

First, the oppressed and those representing the oppressed must unveil the world of domination politics (i.e., become conscious) and through praxis commit ourselves to its transformation. If the blogosphere can serve to raise Howard Dean to prominent political heights, it surely can serve educators in their call for a new vision of teaching and learning.

Second, once the reality of oppression is transformed, this pedagogy no longer belongs to the oppressed; it becomes a pedagogy of all people. In this way the culture of domination is confronted and replaced.

What edubloggers must do is to continue to engage in critical dialogue, reflect, and communicate with those around us. We must be the ones who stand up and take responsibility for the struggle (If not us, then Who?). We must reflect and act together in a way that offers a new story, a new vision of education can be. Start by looking in the mirror: Meet the new boss; you’re not the same as the old boss….

And just for fun, let’s let Pete Townsend tell his version:

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the party on the left
Is now the party on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!