Counter Cultures in the Classroom

When I was in high school in the early 1990s I rarely experienced anything that questioned the role of a dominant culture or even brought it much to light. Sure, we had cliques in school but for the most part they divided themselves along superficial lines (What type of music they liked, if they liked sports or not, what they looked like, etc.) But for the most part I don't remember encountering much of anything, perhaps I was sheltered in my small Midwest Nebraska town, that would suggest that people in the same geographic location could separate themselves among deeper lines.



Sure, there were differences in economic status, religion, and race and there were those in my hometown who chose to do things that went against the mainstream culture like homeschool their children but for the most part these divergences from what most people regarded as "normal" were viewed as fringe and strange.



Or they were considered sick, depraved, or outcasts.

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And, this post is not about youthful transgressions, teen angst, or rebellious youth.



This post is about counter culture.

Four years ago I was teaching in an alternative school in a first ring suburb of Minneapolis when I noticed that the kids I was working with were, in large part, aligning themselves along lines that ran deeper than just the superficial. The obvious examples were the Gangster Disciples and many of the immigrant students I had in class but this kind of social division was not only present in these two (usually unrelated) groups. It was happening with most of my students. They were not joining cliques, they were joining counter cultures.

Many of these counter cultures challenge long held beliefs about the world. They challenge conventional or dominant cultural values. They have different rules for engagement with the world, different "norms" and differing ways of showing respect, gratitude, love, anger, etc. In this context a member of a counter culture might not care about the same things other people care about. They operate with different motivators. And, with this social stratification happening across our society and with the new ease with which to find people of like mind the more empowered we are to operate and affiliate with that counter culture.

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And, with new social technologies shaping how we interact with one another this empowerment can lead people to abandon the "normal" social norms and explore more deeply their fantasies and their true beliefs.



Making it more acceptable to "drop out" and live off the grid and with different rules than the mainstream dominant culture.

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With public education being a state mandate it is highly likely, if you are a teacher, that your classroom contains students of multiple counter cultures. This may not be obvious in all cases but I am sure they are there. Not everyone operates with the same rules, the same values, the same general assumptions of how the world is supposed to work. Whats more, these kids might be of a different culture than their own parents. What kind of pedagogy do you use in a situation like this when many of the kids in your classroom are culturally "off the grid"?

I personally think this is another reason we have seen the rise in online education.

Off the Grid

I have always been fascinated by people who make radically different life decisions than most of us. I think often about people who choose to live "off the grid" for whatever reason. Having grown up with technology playing such a huge part in my life and having been indoctrinated into a western world of consumerist values both through my upbringing and my own psudo-enslavement by consumer credit I simultaneously struggle to understand the choices some people make while also envy them on some level for making such choices. There is a freedom in going off the grid that is hard to deny and there is always a little part of me that thinks I myself am only a thread away from shedding my obligation to uphold cultural values and participate in society in conventional ways.

Our world is full of people who choose to shed conformity to mainstream culture. There are people who are intentionally homeless, there are those who choose to move to the Mesa in New Mexico and live hard but free lives, there are those who leave mainstream culture for religious asceticism such as the Sadus in India, there are the Amish people in the U.S. While the decision to make these life choices for many are influenced by problems such as substance abuse, mental illness, or refuge from the law this is not the case for all people. This leaves me always returning to the same question which I don't have a definitive answer to yet but I know must exist: What is it about our society that produces these counter cultures and why might a person of sound mind and body choose to disconnect?

This also brings up some questions about our education system. If these counter cultures are legitimate and acceptable ways of life in our country do our school systems serve the education needs of these communities? The answer to that question is obviously no. When was the last time you saw an Amish student in a public school? But, our public schools are charged with meeting the needs of all citizens under the age of 21. There is a fundamental problem here. How can this be resolved? What does this mean for No Child Left Behind? Are students who drop out of school because of a clash between the culture our schools are educating students for and the culture they themselves belong to to be considered "Left Behind?" Do we change the definition of "Left Behind," do we change the policy that public schools should serve the needs of all, do we adopt different curriculum and pedagogy that is somehow all inclusive at the expense of calling into question the value of mainstream culture, or do we open separate schools for all? How do I reconcile that what I teach students is inherently charged with both my own biases and the biases native to the system?

Tuesday, Arne Duncan introduced President Obama to our nation's school children by first telling the students to be quiet. Then, Obama began his speech by telling everyone to sit down. (Sit down and shut up). While I enjoyed his speech and felt is was far better than the addresses given by George H. W. Bush or Ronald Regan his message to stay in school and work hard still does scream indoctrination. It was not an indoctrination into the left wing ideology that far right-wingers had worried about preceding this talk. Those fears were quickly placated. Instead, his call to sit down, be quiet, work hard, and stay in school was a call to stay "on the grid." It was an indoctrination into the grid that encompasses both sides of the political debate. A debate that ignores and leaves behind countless people who choose to live "off the grid."

For now I think I will stay "on the grid" but who knows, maybe one day like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bobby Fisher, William Burroughs, or Henry David Thoreau, I will decide to check out and move to the Mesa.