Out here in the countryside, sound travels far.
There's a middle school about a mile away, and every day at 5:30 pm, when school gets out (YES, SCHOOL GETS OUT AT 5:30 PM HERE), they start playing the most sappy, romantic music I can imagine. It's mushy, gushy, and sickeningly sweet. I'm talking cheesy 7th grade dance slow song music, or music that overly sentimental 30something women play in their car if they're feeling lonely.
Over dinner, I heard its sound carry all the way to my backyard.
I imagined two reasons for this:
- To emasculate the boys and auditorially tranquilize them. Boys hate that type of music. Inside many of them (I did) feel like Chewbaaca being tortured in Bespin with high-pitched alarms.
A good example is the gentle lullabyes played by Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Day by day, drip by drip, their masculine yang energy is sapped from them until there's hardly any left to Change Society for the Better.
- A way to drive a wedge in between the natural brother/sisterhood that exists between young boys and girls. I was a PE teacher for a few years and taught all grades. I noticed the 3 and 4 year olds would naturally play boys and girls without any problem. As they got older the separation became more and more pronounced. For sure part of that is biological, but I believe the school is EXACERBATING THIS NATURAL DIVISION.
Imagine this:
Young girls on average like that kind of music. It comes on and they fall into a lull trance, imagining their prince coming to rescue them, further exacerbated by the sorcerers of Hollywood, encouraging girls to become Princesses:
The boys, naturally rebel against this type of music and start making noise or expressing their preferences for different music to be played. Ignored by the dictator (public school teacher), the boys grow more vociferous, or mirror the behavior of the elders and ignore the music, playing or making noise.
*Alright! If you guys aren't quiet, I'm turning the music off!!!" says the teacher.
Boys don't care...girls do
Noooooooo!!! say the girls as they shoot glares at the "misbehaving" boys.
The boys either quiet down to avoid the wrath of their teachers or the girls they might have crushes on. If they don't and continue to protest against bad music, they're labeled as a "Bad kid" and could be ostracized. Ostracism hits the same nerve cells as physical pain. People ostracize those they don't like because it literally hurts.
But the boys aren't "bad kids." They didn't initiate force against anyone. They didn't steal, cheat, lie. All they did was state their preference and stand up for what they believed in.
Elementary and middle schools function as an 8 year ball-cutting exercise. Everything about school is SO GIRLY!
Women, use that empathy that you're so famous for and have some for your brothers and sons who are being TORTURED AND ABUSED in schools around the world. Schooling does not equal education.
There IS a better way.
Learn from 2-time New York Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto
Or from David Rodriguez who does wonderful work today.
And if you're a girl and thinking Well I liked school... please have a little empathy for those who don't share your tastes and to whom that environment was torturous.
And let's evolve out of this prison planet together.
All the best to you!
-Michael McGillicuddy
Fujian, China
Disclaimer: I don't know what went on inside that school. The story above is a combination of my own personal experiences in Arizona public schools, my experiences teaching for 2 years, and my wild and untamed imagination.