---You can download or stream the MRR Radio broadcast featuring Teacher Punks (co-hosted by John No, editor of the Teaching Resistance column) right here: http://www.maximumrocknroll.com/mrr-radio-1522/
Cops
and Teachers: Both have been the subject of shit-talking by punk
bands since the first day some zitty kid from nowhere decided to pick
up an instrument they didn't know how to play and immediately sing
songs about how and why things suck, especially things they have to
personally deal with. Both teachers and cops were and are worthy
targets of hatred – cops always, teachers frequently. Both serve as
instruments of coercive authority that is often institutionally
supported, and both can act as lethal agents of oppression in that
capacity (often in tandem). Both tend to treat their 'charges' in
very different ways depending on the levels of structural privilege
said 'charges' have from their individual circumstances and specific
context, with highly dissimilar personal outcomes based on race,
gender, sexuality, class, and other factors being the norm. In their
modern form, both policing and teaching sprang from colonialism and
capitalism, and both are subject to overwhelming, relentless top-down
pressure from those who explicitly support those toxic
practices/philosophies.
The
difference between teachers and cops, however, lies in their basic
functions on the social and individual level, and in the methods by
which they work. Philosophically, the difference is simple and stark:
Teachers are (at least on paper) expected to nurture, support, and
protect their students as human beings, while the function of police
is to protect private property and enforce law by capturing and
punishing those who they suspect of breaking it. On the surface of
it, these professions should not share any common ground. In
practice, in the modern world these professions often dovetail into
interconnected mechanisms of social control that explicitly and
implicitly (quietly) maintain established hierarchies of structural
inequality and injustice. We ignore the history of these institutions
at our peril, and the history of both policing and modern
state-directed teaching practice are full of stark disparities that
forcefully (and often lethally) marginalize many while others benefit
from levels of structural privilege carefully calibrated to maintain
the status quo.
Punks
are (and have been) right to go after both teachers and cops, as both
have long track records of serving as agents of oppression. Yet we
need to keep in mind that the basic function of these professions is
different at the core. There is no way that policing can be utilized
in a liberatory fashion for marginalized people who have to come into
contact with police, and almost always ends up as purely toxic to
those people who are being “policed”. In contrast, it has been
shown time and time again that teachers who are genuinely dedicated
to the core (non-institutional) philosophies of their profession can,
through radically innovative practices and active subversion of the
institutional aspects of their jobs, play a major role in helping
empower their students to take greater control over their own lives
and potentially become catalysts for affecting real structural/social
change.
This
difference is why there are punks who are teachers, but there are no
cops who are punks, at least not by any definition of “punk” that
makes any sense at all.
In
celebration of the 20th
entry of the Teaching Resistance column (this one), I (John No)
recently hosted a segment on MRR Radio on the theme of radical
teachers in punk, with a focus on songs from people who happen to be
teachers and play in bands. These people also combine their teaching
practice, radical principles, and the aesthetics+ethics of punk (the
smart kind) into a deliciously flammable cocktail to lob at the
nearest cop car or shitty administrator, all while simultaneously
teaching students how to make a similar cocktail to lob at whatever
they like. You can find it at
http://www.maximumrocknroll.com/mrr-radio-1522/,
and here's a breakdown of some details on what songs were selected.
There will be more of these in the future!
1.
SEEIN' RED: “Resist” (Marinus 7", Ebullition 1996)
(tough choice between this one and "It Must Fall" from the
Critical Pedagogy comp 12”, 2000)
Probably
the most obvious choice of bands to lead this comp off with, Dutch HC
legends SEEIN' RED are the first band punks usually think of when
they imagine teachers in bands. Jos from SEEIN' RED is a teacher in
Holland, and has been since before LÄRM morphed into SEEIN' RED in
the late 80s. Radical politics are woven deeply into their music and
life practice. SR continued to be really good through the 90s, which
is when “Resist” was recorded. Though I didn't play it on the
show, the song "It Must Fall" is also great, from the same
period, and was the crucial “Critical Pedagogy” 12" comp put
out by longtime teacher punk Athena K. on her label Six Weeks Records
in 2000...a worthwhile record indeed.
2.
THE OVENS - “Bureaucrats Know Best” (from "Settings", a
cassette- and bandcamp-only release, 2012)
The
OVENS are a queercore band who play early KRS-influenced,
distortion-saturated punk with catchy vocals, and this song also has
the distinction of being the only song in this set that is actually
about specific issues that teachers face in our line of work. I think
both Heather and LB from the OVENS are public school teachers in
Chicago, and LB also writes the excellent, radical teaching-focused
zine TRUCKFACE. . Chicago has become one of the most embattled school
districts in the country under neoliberal overlord mayor Rahm
Emmanuel (a former Obama administration official, natch). Under
Rahm's forceful attempts to privatize public education, he has closed
dozens of schools deemed to be "underperforming" in
standardized tests, mostly in the poorest districts. This policy has
forced students from these closed schools to either travel huge
distances to go to the nearest public schools, or to attend private
charter schools where profit motive is the main administrative
priority and students can get kicked out for pretty much anything if
they are threatening to bring down the school's test score or
behavioral metrics. Here is some writing in TRUCKFACE a little while
back from LB, talking about what was happening:
"Today
I spent 8 class periods in the library, dressed as a zombie for our
world war z book festival. Over 600 students came to the festival to
play games about the book (bingo, zombie musical chairs, jeopardy)
and get their faces painted. We dressed as zombies while other
schools heard their sad fate.
We
will survive, while other schools will not. Though we have received
repeated threats this year and have begun to wither due to the
excessive stress, our school was spared. We still remain on
probation, an arbitrary designation when our test scores are higher,
our attendance levels are higher, and graduation rates continue to
move upwards, we still have that label affixed to our beloved school
as a way to scare us, threaten us and control us.
Five
years ago, i got a job at at a school that will be spared while
thousands of other hard working teachers, just like me, will no
longer have jobs. and thousands of students out there will no longer
have passionate teachers. It was luck to get a job at a higher
performing school. And as many words that the politicians will spill
about resources and test scores, they are unwilling to admit that
they are driving good teachers away either through school closings or
excessive bureaucratic control.
To
say it plainly, businessmen and women are destroying public
education.
After
an exhausting day of celebration with my students, I mourn the losses
around the city and know that anyone of us could be next if we don’t
do something first." --LB
in TRUCKFACE
3.
STRANGE FACES - “No Peace” (off their 2016 demo, also on the
“Frequency of the Truewave Volume II” tape comp from Nervous
Intent Records *shameless
plug*)
Ben
from this killer new bay area darkwave band (he also plays in KAPITAL
and formerly of NEW
FLESH) is currently
inching his way closer to a masters' degree and doing a lot of
teaching along the way, and I believe April is a health educator for
at-risk youth. They are also recently played a benefit for the
striking teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, who have come under extreme
government repression (including murder) for standing up for their
own rights and those of their students as they battle pretty much
exactly the same neoliberal forces of public school privatization and
related "accountability" issues (i.e. union-busting) that
we are dealing with as teachers in the US. The violence and
repression that these teachers have faced, however, is markedly
worse, and solidarity right now is super important. Also see the
Teaching Resistance column in issue #401, which is dedicated to the
subject of the teacher revolt in Oaxaca from first-hand perspectives.
4.
DIAMOND GLAZE - “Diamond Glaze”, streaming on bandcamp, 2015
-Nani,
who lives in London and recently visited here in the bay area, is a
teacher who has worked at a school for students with severe learning
difficulties for 13 years. She focuses on expressive arts there,
helping students figure out a way to express themselves via art and
music. I think she works with Richard Phoenix as well (with whom she
also plays in the raging teacher-centric punk band KICHIGAI). Some of
the most recent work Nani and Richard did was helping the students
(all high school and junior high ages) form and record two band
projects, ROCK PENGUINS and DIAMOND GLAZE - this is a powerful,
snotty and noisy early postpunk (ala RAINCOATS) jammer from DIAMOND
GLAZE!
5.
SCHOLASTIC DETH – “Killed By School”. From the 2002 “Killed
By School” 7” on 625 Thrashcore
-You
really can't fuck with short-lived thrashcore legends SCHOLASTIC
DETH, who formed in 2002, put out a bunch of music, and broke up that
same year because B (of the crucial JUD JUD) was going off to
graduate school – thus the song “Killed By School”, duh. B came
back after a bit and has played in numerous innovative hardcore
combos since including CONQUEST BY DEATH, NO STATIK, and REPLICA. In
the latter, Julianna and Alicia are both teachers in Oakland, B is
now a professor, and Dharma just schools everyone anyway. Just gonna
go ahead here and say it's a crime that I didn't also include such a
teacher-centric bay area modern band as REPLICA on this playlist, but
I will get them in on the next one.
5.
LOS CRUDOS - "Tiempos
De La Miseria". From the 1993 "La Rabia Nubla Nuestros
Ojos..." 7”.
Martin
of Crudos, Limp Wrist, etc. was a teacher for many years. As is
evident from this CRUDOS song and many others, just because you work
as a teacher does NOT mean you have to act as an agent of a fucked-up
government and structurally racist, capitalist system. If you are a
teacher, resist
that system and help your students acquire the tools to do the same.
And while you are at it, teacher punks/punx/ponx/puunx/etc, submit a
guest column to Teaching Resistance and let us know what is going on!
teachingresistance[at]gmail.com
--John No, Teaching Resistance Editor
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