“When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost?”
Among the congratulatory plaudits and cliches passed out at the annual commencement ceremonies, one
valedictory speech was delivered this spring with a refreshing twist.
“I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. … So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it?”
Enter one Erica Goldson, valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School, class of 2010.
“I Have Completed This Period of Indoctrination”
You may have come across the text of Goldson’s speech – it’s been making the rounds on the internet.
Forsaking the typical “first day of the rest of our lives” quotations and Dr. Seuss, Goldson chose instead to fire a clear shot across the bow of public education, a deliberately incendiary projectile from a departing star member of the ranks.
“I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination.”
Although written only this spring, the speech has been years in the making.
“I think even in high school I was starting … probably around 10th grade is when I started really thinking, “Why am I here? What do I want to do with my life?” says Goldson. She is scheduled to enter university this fall, but Goldson says she faces the prospect with some apprehension. “I have no idea what I want to do so when I’m prompted to pick a major, it’s scary because I have no idea what direction I want to go or what career I want to go into.”
With some trepidation, Goldson worked up the nerve to express her doubts to her father.
“[It was] one of the scariest things ever – and he said, have an alternative plan. At least give college a try, and if it wasn’t working then maybe take a leave of absence later.” The conversation was “a lot different than I thought it was going to be,” she laughs.
“When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.”
Whereas conventional wisdom declares the top of the class should equal top of the world, “my education
makes me feel like I haven’t prepared for the world,” says Goldson. “It seems like people care about things that don’t really matter – consumer goods and commercialism. I’m trying really hard to deviate from that path but it’s hard …I have friends but I can’t talk to them because
they’re not interested [in these same issues].”
“School is not all that it can be”
So what flipped the switch for Goldson? No single, seminal event. Instead, she drew from a variety of experiences. Take, for example, her conversations with foreign exchange students at her high school.
“There was one guy from Germany, [he] would always laugh at our education system, but he would teach me so much about things like chemistry and physics. He [said] our science programs were very elementary… we don’t even learn chemistry and physics until high school.
“Our education being laughed at by foreign students was pretty sad because they would have to go home and redo that year, since they hadn’t learned enough [in the U.S. public school] to advance to the next year at their home school.”
“Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be.”
This is because at the end of the day, the difference between getting a diploma and getting an education is made almost entirely by the individual instructors that a child is fortunate – or unfortunate – enough to meet along the way.
“In high school there was one amazing teacher, I really attached to her and later, with her encouragement, co-founded a club,” says Goldson. Sophomore year, enter English teacher Donna Bryan. In her speech, Goldson credits Bryan as the influence that “allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine.”
The group Goldson helped found was the “World of Difference” club. The purpose: to educate people about prejudice, social justice and human rights. “We would raise money to donate to human rights and causes.” In a speech made to the Board of Education, Bryan said the club was formed “to inform ourselves and the rest of the school about human rights… the kids have gotten so much out of it.”
The club has raised funds for human rights causes and attended documentary film festivals. It was “exciting to see them have an awakening to the things that really matter,” said Bryan.
“Our motivational force ought to be passion”
Goldson’s awakening continued senior year when she attended classes at Hudson Valley Community College. Like Bryan, “a few different teachers [at community college] opened my mind – it was varied… definitely different than high school, but still not everything I hoped for.”
Still, she encountered instructors with practical background in their field, passing on knowledge gained from experience rather than regurgitated from textbooks.
“And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us… we are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement…. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is
lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.
While researching her speech, Bryan suggested Goldson read some works by unschooling proponent John Taylor Gatto. His opinions made an impression; so much so that Gatto’s words wound up as part of the commencement address.
“John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into (sic) truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are
worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.”
Since posting the text of her speech, Goldson’s page has been receiving regular praise from members of the Been There, Done That, You Go Girl crowd – and not susprisingly, quite a few identify themselves as homeschool and/or unschool parents.
“[Since the comments have started,] I’ve been doing some research … I’ve been really interested in the whole un-schooling moment and realizing that kids are individuals and can learn without standardized instruction,” says Goldson. “I think the New York State School System telling everybody what to learn – that’s ridiculous.”
“Our potential is at stake”
So, what would Goldson change about the current school system?
“A change I would make would be that teachers aren’t taught how to teach. I don’t like the idea that people leave high school to become a teacher. I think that most knowledge comes from experience and a teacher should be someone who really knows and should hand down their knowledge.
“In my community college [I met people like that.] My english teacher had published work, my sociology professor was doing research, and the economics professor – I talked to him so much about his business, and he used to be on Wall Street.”
Finding That Alternative Plan
After that conversation with her father, Goldson says “I thought about what I really want to do with my life, and what I really want to do is live simply, make bonds with really great people, have intelligent conversations.”
In search of those conversations, Goldson will spend three weeks exploring a decidedly non-collegiate lifestyle before departing for school.
“I’ll be visiting a commune – staying three weeks learning how to organically farm. I figured I would take an alternative route by visiting an alternative living environment.”
But… a commune?
“In my sociology class, I was learning about Marxism. I wanted to see what it was like to live in a different economic system.”
“I do want to change the world for the better. I’m just not sure how I will yet.”
Amie Beal writes Helping to Homeschool for the Washington Times Communities.
This article originally appeared in Helping to Homeschool, my column at communities.washingtontimes.com
