There seems to be an inverse relationship between my colleagues’ talent and skills as educators and their desire and willingness to employ authoritarianism and control with the children.
I feel like there is something which might be generalized from this, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Thoughts?
Kazzy
One man. Two boys. Twelve kids.
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When your only tool is a hammer…Report
If I had a hammer,
I’d hammer in the morning,
I’d hammer in the evening,
All over this land,
I’d hammer out danger,
I’d hammer out a warning,
I’d hammer out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.Report
I actually like that song.Report
I actually like that song.Report
Though seeing a bunch of GOP toadies sing it to Tom DeLay at a going-away-to-be-tried-for-corruption dinner was exceptionally nauseating.Report
A+Report
Reminds of the classic Isaac Asimov quote “Violence is the last refuge of the incompent” …also puts me in the mind that those who self promote most avidly seem to have little to promote…Report
It was also funny how over time this quote by one of the early mayors of the foundation (if memory serves) was perverted to even the opposite meaning through the centuries.Report
I don’t recall that (quite possibly your memory is better than mine.) I do recall Jerry Pournelle’s quip that only the incompetent would wait that long to use violence.Report
All (competent) leadership is by example. There is no other kind.Report
Authoritarian control always seems to me to be rooted in a basic lack of confidence in others.
An authoritarian government lacks confidence that the people it governs will behave according to the laws they make; it lacks confidence that voters will like their policies.
An authoritarian employer lacks confidence that its employees will competently do their jobs if they are left free to do so.
So too, an authoritarian teacher lacks confidence that her charges will learn if they are not dictated to.Report
I think this in conjunction with what MRS says above nails it (no pun intended).
But, damn, it is exhausting. When I’m on the playground with the kids, there might be 2 or 3 situations which I independently intervene in over the course of 45 minutes to an hour. There are probably a few more I do at the behest of the students (though I usually redirect them to use a modeled conflict resolution strategy on their own first). Otherwise, I’m either quietly watching or engaging them on more positive lines. I watch others and they can’t go 30 seconds without giving someone a directive. Ugh, I’d go insane if I had to micromanage so fiercely.Report
Fear is a powerful motivator. Trouble is, it has a short shelf life. Soon enough, the authoritarian jailer becomes the prisoner and the prisoners become the jailers.
Solzhenitsyn once said only the prisoners in the gulag were truly free to speak their minds. Once you’ve taken everything away from a man, you have no more power over him.Report
I wonder if authoritarianism also lacks confidence in itself.Report