2nd lesson to be Unlearned – “Class Position”

While in school, most of us had no say about the people around us. We were part of a class where most people were our age, yet might’ve shared almost nothing with our own worldview. In the second salon of this series, hosted by João, we will explore our relationship with people around us in school.

In John Taylor Gatto’s speech, “The 7 Lesson Schoolteacher”, he talks about how the school teaches us to despise those above and below us. He also questions the way we choose who’s around us in class. As he says:

“I teach that you must stay in class where you belong. I don’t know who decides that my kids belong there but that’s not my business.”

The way we relate to classmates closely resembles the way we relate to people at work when we’re adults. Is that healthy? How is the current educational system teaching our students to relate with one another? Is it possible to design an alternative?

Come share your personal experience and try to come up with principles that may allow us to teach students to relate with each other in a more meaningful way!

Recommended readings:

• The 7 Lesson Schoolteacher

• My own summary of those 7 lessons