the point

 So, I'm an English teacher, I have to do a lot of reading about teaching and pedagogy and all that shit, and the thing is, the real thing is, the thing that really hits me most of the time is not what is the point because I fucking know I'm having these juniors and seniors read A Clockwork Orange for my own pure amusement (and I will say, one of my juniors used nadsat correctly just, like, casually, so that was really fun), but why does there need to be a point. 

I know, see, that school is supposed to be there to get you into college. That is, at least, what every damn public school in the US is trying to do, despite the fact that not everyone wants or needs to go to college. And let me tell you that the school I teach at is especially tiny and full of people who especially are not going to college. That is fine. These kids like and know machinery and farming and that is all right. They're not the kids I'm worried about. It's the kids that are genuinely bright and you can tell aren't going to go into farming but have little to no motivation to do school. 

Part of that, I'm sure, is because it's boring, even though we're reading a fucking Clockwork Orange, B-----. Actually, I'm sure most of that is because they're bored. I'm not saying that it's the fault of the teachers or the fault of the subject or the fault of just the institution itself, but it's boring. It was boring when I was in school and it's boring now. I, mostly because I don't care if I get fired, because it's just a job and it's not my entire life, will delve deep into these books and what they're really about, if the class will let me. Today I had a conversation with the eighth graders about rape and feminism, because we're reading Speak.This doesn't work for every class only because a lot of these classes, particularly the older ones, have checked out. 

And I'd like to make a plea for learning for learning's sake. Sure, you may never do anything with A Clockwork Orange when you're done reading it, but by God, isn't it an interesting novel? Aren't all these things you're learning in science fun things to know? Why do you want to be just a screen? So many of these kids have zero hobbies. Some of them do have hobbies; they like being outside and hunting and working on machinery and again, they are not who I'm worried about. 

I'm more worried about the ones who placate themselves by just sitting in front of a screen all day. And yeah, I sit in front of a screen a lot, too. But there is a difference between blank video-watching, TikTok TikTok TikTok and writing. There are some of these kids who have nothing to do but play on their phones. There is no desire to be better or more and no desire to rip up everything in front of them just to see how it works. The curiosity is gone. And no matter how much I try to drag it out of them by letting them write whatever the hell they want and making my classroom a space where they can say literally anything (response to A Clockwork Orange today: "He's fucked up," and, yes, he is.), they do not care. And I don't know how high their quality of life is if they keep looking for the point. I think that's the thing--they looked for the point and they didn't find it so they decided that the fact that there was no point means that they shouldn't do anything. 

But that's wrong.

The fact that there is no point means that you should fucking make one.