Concept for Teaching Lounge, 7-5-12

Where to begin. We made the drive yesterday to Sunriver and came to Sunriver to be with Mom over the 4th and the weekend. Independence Day was yesterday, so I was able to find a sub for today, Thursday. And here I sit early this sunny Thursday, in the midst of ponderosa and dewy desert flora, writing.

But now the entire affair is one of possibility, one of exploration. I am at my mother’s house now. She seemed amazed that I would pick up my computer the first thing in the morning. “What do you hope to see in there?” she asked. “I hope to see my own words.” I said. Of course I said it loudly so that she could hear me, and of course she still said “What?”, so I said it louder: “I HOPE TO SEE MY OWN WORDS!” informing the still sleeping house of the entire goal not only of picking up the computer, but also of every effort of my life. Pretty cool actually. Mom, perplexed at the ubiquity of the computer in our lives, in one simple question, compels me to announce my intentions to the sleeping house and to the world.

My own words. It isn’t enough to sit here simply plowing ahead with the mundane thoughts that come to me in the morning. I need to focus on a larger expression. My writing tends to be quite a lot of navel gazing and not enough substance. I shouldn’t actually say this, since I try to focus on some bigger project in every journal entry and autowrite. I thing what I need to work on right now is dragging out one of the stories from my files and begin resuscitating it. Which one? Does it matter? 

One of the stories that I have been working over in my mind is “Faculty Lounge,” which I know will be publishable, once it’s down. There are multiple directions to take the story, of course, any one developable in its own right. However, I need to focus on the matter at hand: the decline of education, not necessarily of the Education budget, but of the value of education in our society. There seems to be a a current developing that is anti-college, an this I think is a dangerous path. Although most kids in high school aspire to college, it is their parents who are increasingly discouraged a) with the price tag associated with higher ed, and b) with the perceived brainwashing they feel their kids are receiving. Apparently critical thinking is taking on the air of elitism.

I think that the biggest threat to education is not the cost of higher ed and not the threat of atheist professors practicing mind-control over their minions. No, the real threat to education in the early years, during primary and secondary school, in which becoming versed in literature, mathematics, history, and science has become such an institutionalized practice that all participants, from the high school dean to the 1st grader, fall prey to the slow poison of indifference. The devaluation of Education is damaging everyone, and benefiting only those who would find it useful to have myopic droids under their control. It is the dictatorship of the damned that I’m speaking of, a feudal state in which the middle class in forced into serfdom and the aristocrats again sink their teeth into the cake of their desire: power.

“Faculty Lounge” is a taste of what we get from shirking our responsibility to public education. I need to write it as a satire, but I also want to keep it fairly ambiguous. I need to envision the end of the story. This will help me focus on getting the characters properly positioned in their roles. How do I see the story ending? First of all, since this is satire, the world as we know it needs to be collapsing; the failing structures of both the school buildings and the curriculum need to parallel that of the demoralization among administrators, teaching staff and students. We the reader might be in the position of the parents, contributing when and where we can, but largely helpless as we watch the cascading erosion of the school. The ending should reflect this desperation, but it also should present an alternative, some glimmer of hope challenging the reader to take action swiftly and in the right direction. 

So the protagonist should have gone through a journey by the end of the story, and we should be able to see clearly what the issue is at hand. However, we also need to see something the protagonist does not, or perhaps will come around to seeing if the story were to continue. It is in the interest of the story to establish this dramatic irony early and carry it forward along its natural arc to the end. So, my protagonist is naive in her first days and weeks, but she is not dumb. She sees what’s going on in her own small way, but despite her efforts is more or less ineffectual at changing anything. The end should also convey a tinge of sadness for the world. This might be expressed in a situation with a student whose needs have overwhelmed the resources of the school. We are left with the sinking feeling that in subsequent school years, the system will continue to “fail” this same student. 

“Failure,” in fact, might be a central theme of the story. While a student can “fail” a test or a class in the traditional manner, say by not studying, a school can “fail” the student in any number of ways, ways that should become apparent in the story. First, a school can fail to properly motivate the student. She or he might be inclined at first to succeed, but become complacent or apathetic over time as a result of insufficient attention or praise. Secondly, the curriculum that is tailored towards rote learning suppresses the natural curiosity of students, so that the become mere robots. This might be an aspect of the protagonist’s efforts with her class. She may be making strides toward reestablishing a sense of wonder, but the Board steps in, imposing a mind-numbing, dream-killing test-centered curriculum. Third, because parents are also obsessed with the test scores of their kids, there is no respite for the students, causing more stress at home, drug abuse, absenteeism, and expulsion. Compounding this stress is the removal of key modes of self expression, both physical and emotional. PE programs cut, music programs cut, art, theater, creative writing, languages, all cut due to lack of government funding and the agenda of the new corporate presence in the school board.

This agenda seeks to re-invigorate the flagging sense of enterprise among the new generations, the 

So, what does the ending look like in this story? Answer: collapse in slow motion. Maybe this can be represented/foreshadowed in something a minor character observes.   S/he sees the implosion of a building during a filmed demolition, notes the precision of the planes like so many playing cards. Perhaps this can close a narrative around a certain issue arising in one of the protagonist’s students--something to do with the inability to read or comprehend basic material. Perhaps this is the protag’s husband, or maybe it’s one of the parents. I like this latter because it brings in the parent’s perspective. 

So, the ending needs to present the world in a clearer light. But it should also present questions. Questions like what is the role of the teacher now and in the future? What is the cost of education in terms of what graduates can offer society? What is the nature of curiosity and what happens when it dies? Who will be accountable for the intellectual deficit of this nation?