Creating my own Myth, even though it was inspired by Dr. Baxter's book, only reiterated what I already knew about Myths and why I hate them so much: they are make believe stories used to control some aspect of our existence. Some worse than others. The trickster tales at least don't always purport to have some divine insight and claim of authority.
What gets me so upset is the grotesque violation that Myths make of the public educational mandate to uphold the Secular Humanist tradition and stay away from all metaphysical beliefs in a direct way.
Hence, are you a Wiccan, do it on your own time. Are you a Great Spirit believer and was raised in an Indian Tribe, practice it on your own time. Are you Jewish or Christian or Muslim, you've got all the synogogues, churches and mosques you can dream of.
These are all parts of History, no more, and oddities to discover the basis of social control in literature.
Public education is for Secular Humanist cognitive skill development, the requirements of ALL humans at ALL times no matter the belief.
To bring in this baggage from the past in a direct confrontation is to invite boredom and disaster. I believe strongly that this is the reason so many of the science majors and rational humans FLEE from the "language arts." This multicultural verbiage scares the wits out of them after leaving the safe, sane compounds of rational math, science, chemisty, physics and biology. They don't see a need for this, and they are right. When they dream of being a doctor, a research scientist or a computer engineer, they know intuitivly that this myth stuff is for the birds. And they are right.
No one dares to speak out for Fear.
Perhaps it's a bias on my part, perhaps I am wrong, dead wrong. Everyone loves tales that have absolutely no bearing on modern life, career and happiness.
So, I have learned a lot, and my passion has only cemented what has taken me a long time to put into words.
If any student says to me when I give them carte blanche to write an essay on any subject or text: "I want to write about the White Buffalo Calf Woman." I would say: "Great, have at it."
If the Department of Education wants to force this mystical mayhem and multicultural mythic nightmare on the public at large in the name of cultural equality, I say: "check your premises and your mandate to Secular Humanism and leave off." It is so clear to me now that, while All humans are equal, all cultures and their myths have been equally horrendous in their hegemonic control, the West leading the way!
Let's begin a new day, a new day of liberty and freedom for all. Let's fulfill our Constitutional mandate and not go back to the drug induced or mystic fogginess of fake reality and phony morality summed up in "death to the disbelievers!".
That is what I have learned by creating my Myth.
It's at times like this that I feel that becoming an English teacher is a wrong career choice for me, being forced to confront this kind of stuff would be torture.
What are the optional career paths for an English major?
Michael
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Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteHow about culinary arts? :-) Really, I don't know what other opportunities are out there, but all I know is whatever is open, we need to actually do something. You know, actions can be considered a language (walking up to the front desk with a clown outfit in the Cirque du Soliel headquarters is a ridiculous example, but I won't doubt it), so it actually depends on one's passion. For some of us, we're scientists, too. We're going to take a piece of word or phrase or even the whole thing and try to break it down to do some confirmations on what the text is actually saying. I would say it's more a torture for me to teach it than create it because at first, you have to figure out what's really behind the lines. One day, a 14-year-old kid's going to say, "But Mr... you're wrong because..." I'm going to be red-faced knowing I don't really have the facts to prove my point. As for creating myths, I think we get the most privileges because we're entitled to the power of withholding all that information because then we'd want to, well, make our students think (hence, the torture). That's one of the beauties of an English major. :-)
If I understand this post correctly it is saying that teaching mythical stories violate public education’s mandate to uphold secular humanist traditions. Well, to me, that just seems silly. I don’t think any public education system is promoting any sort of myth as truth. I believe the purpose of learning about myths is to understand history, various cultures, the development of mankind and the development of literature. Should I believe that none of these four things are worth learning about? I think it would be a great disservice to our society to forget about these things entirely and to keep them from the minds of the general public. Also, how about anthropology? Does that have no place in public education? How can you teach anthropology in the classroom without mentioning previous beliefs? I do not understand what the big deal is about explaining a dead culture’s previous beliefs. To me, it seems necessary in order to understand previous cultures. Also, myths are some of the oldest stories ever told, don't you think it is significant to at least take note of how stories have developed and evolved over time? I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that teaching myths scare those who love science and math. Is it really that big of a deal? These myths are not taught as truths about the world they are taught as stories previous cultures believed in, obviously, without the aid of 21st century technology. If you’re too scared or too angry or too anything to teach myths in a public education class because you think it corrupts secular principals of our society well then you’re really hurting the perspective of your students and it definitely is best to get out while you can. This type of thing should be taught only by those who can separate fantasy from reality; guess we all have a ways to go…some more than others.
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for both of you for responding.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, When someone writes a response like "This type of thing should only be taught only by those who can separate fantasy from reality" I am first shocked at the insult, the personal attack on my ability to view reality/fantasy; then I marvel at the way it sounds just like how a dictator would give an order...just like how a public official would give an order, just like how a teacher would give an order--an order that we the STATE knows best for all of you, yes us your masters who speak on the name of "society and the great State.
It is not so surprising that following that personal attack on my mental abilities, you go one step further by stating that I have a "ways to go" to...what? Keep up with your massive intellect?
You are the worst kind of argumentor, with your personal attacks, your ad hominum.
I would love to demolish what little arguement you have line by line.
But how does one attack personal verbal assaults?
What's with calling me "too scared" and "too angry." Like your insults to me isn't based on out of control anger.
You and your ilk are the ones who take all of the fun out of blogging. One attack after another when one doesn't agree or for god knows what kind of personal reason.
If I do get out of public education it is more to flee from people like you than having to teach mythical mind control to innocent children seeking a rational education and a hope for a happy future.