Full at http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2014/02/28/teaching-workers/
"Karl Marx’s famous dictum sums up my teaching philosophy:
“The philosophers of the world have only interpreted the world
in various ways; the point is to change it.” As I came to see it,
Marx had uncovered the inner workings of our society, showing
both how it functioned and why it had to be transcended if human
beings were to gain control over their lives and labor. Disseminating
these ideas could help speed the process of human liberation.
>From a college classroom, I thought that I could not only interpret
the world, I could indeed change it.
is one thing; the trick is bringing thoughts to life. How, actually,
does a person be a radical teacher? How, for example, can students
be shown the superior insights of Marxian economics in classes that
have always been taught from the traditional or neoclassical
perspective—taught, in fact, as if the neoclassical theory developed
by Adam Smith and his progeny is the gospel truth? My college
expected me to teach students the “principles” of economics: that
people act selfishly and independently of one another, that this
self-centeredness generates socially desirable outcomes. And further,
that capitalism, in which we, in fact, do act out of self-interest,
is therefore the best possible economic system. Had I refused to
do this and taught only Marxian economics, I doubt I could have kept
my job.
My students were mostly the children of factory workers, miners,
and other laborers, just the young people I wanted to reach and
move to action. However, nearly all of them were hostile to radical
perspectives, having been taught that such views were un-American.
Their animosity was sometimes palpable, especially when I pointed
out the many things they did not know about our country’s unsavory
relationships with the rest of the world. A retired Marine told me
that, after we watched a particularly radical film about U.S.
imperialism, he wanted to come down the aisle and strangle me"
I welcome comments. Please pass along to anyone you think might be
interested. If you post this to a website, please let me know.
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