Teaching Hitler To Type: Vocational Training for Bastards
I have an engineer friend who worked for a military contractor. Her job was designing weapons systems. I always wanted to ask her this:
I know that people who do such things for a living can always argue that it's in the interest of national defense,(actually, for my country that's debatable--more like national offense), but what about the personal? How does it feel to know that you spend 40 hours a week making something whose only purpose is to kill and destroy? Doesn't that bother you?
I never got around to asking her the question, and now she's in another line of work, so I don't bring it up. In any event, she's a smart person, so I'm sure she'd have a good answer.
In my line of work, teaching, I'm generally lauded for "making a positive difference". Sadly, I must report, my faith in the nobility of my profession is not what it once was.
A student I taught several years ago sent me a letter recently. In her handwritten correspondence ,she thanked me profusely for being such a positive influence in her life and for giving her the skills to succeed.
As I read it, I was moved, and tears welled up in my eyes as I turned over the letter to read the last paragraph.
"Now, dear Mr. L., I have the job of my dreams working at R.J. Reynolds marketing cigarettes to China!"
My heart sank. From now on, I'm asking kids what they're going to do with the education they receive, and depending on what they say, I'll dole out my pearls of wisdom in direct proportion to their good intentions.
What if, in the early years of the 20th Century, someone in the field of education had taken it upon themselves to intentionally miseducate Hitler? What if some clever typenfrau had mispositioned the QWERTY keys so that every time he tried to write "exterminate the jews", he wrote "geferbiflap kur neetkinuk"?
I've often heard teachers claim that their goal is to make their students "productive members of society"...For me, that depends on what the society is producing.
I know that people who do such things for a living can always argue that it's in the interest of national defense,(actually, for my country that's debatable--more like national offense), but what about the personal? How does it feel to know that you spend 40 hours a week making something whose only purpose is to kill and destroy? Doesn't that bother you?
I never got around to asking her the question, and now she's in another line of work, so I don't bring it up. In any event, she's a smart person, so I'm sure she'd have a good answer.
In my line of work, teaching, I'm generally lauded for "making a positive difference". Sadly, I must report, my faith in the nobility of my profession is not what it once was.
A student I taught several years ago sent me a letter recently. In her handwritten correspondence ,she thanked me profusely for being such a positive influence in her life and for giving her the skills to succeed.
As I read it, I was moved, and tears welled up in my eyes as I turned over the letter to read the last paragraph.
"Now, dear Mr. L., I have the job of my dreams working at R.J. Reynolds marketing cigarettes to China!"
My heart sank. From now on, I'm asking kids what they're going to do with the education they receive, and depending on what they say, I'll dole out my pearls of wisdom in direct proportion to their good intentions.
What if, in the early years of the 20th Century, someone in the field of education had taken it upon themselves to intentionally miseducate Hitler? What if some clever typenfrau had mispositioned the QWERTY keys so that every time he tried to write "exterminate the jews", he wrote "geferbiflap kur neetkinuk"?
I've often heard teachers claim that their goal is to make their students "productive members of society"...For me, that depends on what the society is producing.
