(The following was read as the valedictorian’s speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in recent weeks, creating quite a stir among administrators, to great applause from students and many of their parents)

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master: “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?” The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” (The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” (Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)

To illustrate this idea, doesn’t it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren’t we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don’t have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can’t run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be – but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, “You have to learn this for the test” is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn’t have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a “see you later” when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let’s go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we’re smart enough to do so!

Erica Goldson
Athens, NY

Lots going on right now, so I am taking a break.  Yes, we are still doing math and should finish this month.  I will return to regular postings in August!

When we bought a new microwave 2 years ago it was to replace the old one that had burnt popcorn so badly it never got rid of the smell; so that every time you used the microwave burnt popcorn smell wafted in the air for hours.  It was horrid.  Like most people we use a microwave for little things like heating up leftovers.  However, we know people who do not have a microwave.  Which led to research and discussion and we always kept the microwave.  We started making popcorn on the stove again.  Everyone enjoyed it so much more that we only do it that way now.  I am not opposed to doing veggies in the microwave, but I don’t mind heating it up on the stove.  I could only think of a few ways I used the microwave in our weekly routine.  There were days we did not use the microwave.

So when some food this week was throwing sparks I thought to myself we should throw the thing out.  The next day it melted some bacon onto a towel in a black goo mess that sent the most putrid smoke and smell throughout the house that I demanded it go away.  I came down with an ocular migraine about 2 hours later so I blame the microwave.  I spent the next 2 days off and on in bed with such awful pain that when I wanted to heat something up that required a microwave I just could not get upset that it was gone.  My head was hurting too badly to care.

Since throwing it out I have learned how to reheat some items in creative ways.  I should clarify that a neighborhood kid took the microwave home with her and it is not going to the landfill.  How do you reheat spaghetti and meatballs?  First you save them in separate containers.  You can easily let the sauce/meatballs reheat in a pot.  The spaghetti I put in boiling water for 1 minute.  Viola!  I had my lunch without a microwave.  How do you heat up ‘microwave fudge topping’ for ice cream?  You get creative   We dumped it into a small glass bowl sitting in a sauce pan of boiling water.  While stirring to get it evenly hot I realized how hard some items will be to reheat.  We will be buying fudge topping in the glass jar next time.

We already eat healthy and we have now ensured that if they ever do confirm how bad a microwave is for you that we took care of the problem. 

Here is to a new week with lots of pots to clean!

I was told recently by a family member they do not wait more than 30 minutes for a specialty Dr.  At that point they leave and reschedule.  I like the idea.  I guess I do not have the guts to do it!

I had an annual exam today at 3pm.  It is a 30 minute drive to this Dr. office.  I was 10 minutes early.  I waited 30 minutes in the waiting room.  I was considering leaving when they called me back.  In previous years at this point things move quickly so I was okay when I was asked to sit until a room opened.  However,  30 more minutes passed.  Another lady who had come in the same time as me sat down.  We started comparing time notes and she up and went to reschedule.  I panicked!  I was NEXT for a room…do I dare leave after waiting over an hour???

I flagged down the nurse to inquire about my room having waited an hour and I got into one in less than 5 minutes.  The Dr. was there pronto and I was out of the office in less than 15 minutes.  I should have said something sooner perhaps?

I then had the 40 minute drive home(there was the tunnel traffic on the way home).  I started thinking…how long is appropriate to wait?  For a general Dr…15 minutes?  For a specialty Dr…30 minutes?  What do you think?

I like snow.  I enjoyed the snow we got.  I look forward to our snowboarding trip in March.  I am laughing as I read about the snow about to hit D.C. this week.  They have 2-3 feet already with many people out of power and another 20 inches may dump on them.  If we had no power it would super cold in our house.  The gas logs haven’t worked in years and the service tech told me it wasn’t worth fixing for heat purposes.  Yep, that gas fireplace is for ‘ambiance’.  So we chose not to pay to fix it.  And in a room with 4 windows I doubt it would heat up much like the guy said.

So I hope all the D.C. people are enjoying their snow.  We will get some tomorrow morning but nothing that will stick.  Kinda glad about that!