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Marco Rogers Profile picture
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12 Jun, 8 tweets, 2 min read
For me this brings to mind something I've been reading about in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire goes into detail on what he calls the "banking model" of education. Where students are empty vessels that we deposit knowledge into.
This is the style that has become dominant in Western education. Freire explains why and how it serves to support and maintain systems of oppression. The teacher is held as an infallible actor. And the way students learn is by deferring to the teacher on all things.
First off, we can see how this model of uni-directional passing of knowledge supports this statement of one teacher for 300-400 students. The students have no say in their education. There's no interaction. They're just absorbing input from the teacher.
But if we probe deeper, we also start to understand it as an oppressive system. One where the "education" we are trying to deliver to students is static and wrote. We're depositing prepackaged messages rather than engaging them in critical thinking and growth.
That leads to an examination of what those prepackaged messages are and where they come from. Freire describes a different model. Wherein the students are willing and active participants in what they are learning. And teachers are imperfect actors that engage and learn as well.
This model is dangerous to those in power precisely because they can't control what students will learn. It's a model where people become who they will become with much less indoctrination and conditioning towards accepting the hierarchies of oppression.
I hope y'all can connect this to ongoing conflict around "CRT in schools". All the rhetoric around "the souls of our children". Oppressive systems must seek to indoctrinate the populace early in order to establish and maintain systems of control.
Anyway. I went pretty far afield only to come back to this. I hope folks understand why talking about "scaling" education in this way is incredibly dangerous. We should resist this kind of thing with everything we have.

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Marco Rogers Profile picture
11 Jun
This is worth highlighting as a feature of both imperialism and Whiteness. The fundamental belief that there is no objective morality. And instead right and wrong are defined by who you are. As a result, morality becomes a function of who has more power.
This is what we're getting at when we say "history is written by the winners". It's not a simple statement. It's about how those with power actively rewrite the rules of morality to serve themselves.
"When the president does it, it's not illegal."

We see this throughout history. Part of what it means to be in power is having the ability to absolve yourself of accountability. Historically, morally, legally, economically, socially. You can literally do no wrong.
Read 6 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
9 Jun
Something I think about a lot. There's a whole part of the populace that gravitated towards "centrism" and "middle ground" kind of politics. It stems from our tendency towards binary thinking. E.g. "both sides", "two extremes". But at the root of it is a desire to avoid conflict.
The phrase "avoid conflict" evokes some feelings, but mostly sounds like a good thing. If we say "conflict avoidance", that evokes a different reaction. And we can start to see that trying to find the "middle" in a conflict that needs to be resolved is often counterproductive.
The conflict between white people and non-white people. Between Owners and workers. The conflict between oppressors and those they seek to oppress. These conflicts can't be avoided. They can't be swept under the rug. They are core to our society and must be faced.
Read 4 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
9 Jun
A reminder. Nobody is pushing to CRT in k-12 schools. Nobody. This is an entirely fabricated "controversy". It's a clear example of how white supremacy is used to manipulate white people.
Sometimes it's just rhetoric that means something see. But in this case, I think we have to learn to take these folks at their word. They think their children are going to be taught to hate America and to hate themselves for being white.
These folks already fervently believe in the power of propaganda and conditioning to make people behave a certain way. That is how they operate. So naturally they would take it very seriously if they felt that was being used against them.
Read 4 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
8 Jun
Whew. I remember being young. You couldn’t convince me I didn’t already understand everything. It was impossible to get me to listen to something I wasn’t ready to hear. I remember the feeling. When I reflect on it today, I had to *learn* how to be open to new information.
It’s helpful to think about listening as a skill you can develop. Not only so you can actively get better at. But also because you can do it with intentionality. You can decide that what you want to do is *seek* better understanding on a subject so you can grow.
But it also you allows you to be more intentional about when you are *not* listening. Not every message is worth hearing. It’s okay to not listen to messages you know are harmful. That’s how you avoid manipulation. What we want is to develop better judgment about which is which.
Read 5 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
4 Jun
I've been thinking a lot about the labor "shortage" in lower wage industries. I feel like we are re-learning something important about movements of the past. I may screw this up. But let me try to explain.
What we see happening today is that industries that have been underpaying for decades are now finding it hard to re-hire now that they want to recover from the (ongoing) pandemic.
There are lots of reasons people aren't going back. But one claim is that they're living off unemployment and that means they don't need the low wages provided by work. That's why Owners are petitioning the government to cut unemployment. To force people back into desperation.
Read 9 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
4 Jun
Let me say it again. They are *right*. Diversity has never been necessary for the continued success *of white men*. If you think you're making the argument that they "need" diversity, you're gonna have a bad time. This is a fight. Stop thinking you can talk them into it.
I have a favorite pithy definition for the word politics. At it's core, "politics" is the thing we invented in a civilized society so that all of our fights don't end in murdering each other. It is a truly important innovation. But we still have to recognize when it's a fight.
There is no way to "persuade" the people who hoard resources that they should willingly give it up. Instead what we're negotiating is how are we gonna get access to those resources without bloodshed. And right now they think they have all the leverage and can't get fucked up.
Read 7 tweets

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