Subversive Teaching Suggestions

These suggestions on subversive teaching techniques are from the 1969 book Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Postman & Weingartner:

  • Declare a five-year moratorium on the use of all textbooks
  • Have “English” teachers “teach” Math, Math teachers English, Social Studies teachers Science, Science teachers Art, and so on.
  • Transfer all of the elementary-school teachers to high school and vice versa.
  • Require every teacher who thinks he knows his “subject” well to write a book on it
  • Dissolve all “subjects,” “courses,” and especially “course requirements.”
  • Limit each teacher to three declarative sentences per class, and 15 interrogatives.
  • Prohibit teachers from asking any questions they already know the answers to
  • Declare a moratorium on all tests and grades
  • Require all teachers to undergo some form of psycho-therapy as part of their in-service training
  • Classify teachers according to their ability and make the lists public (LA School District has recently made a lame attempt at something like this)
  • Require all teachers to take a test prepared by students on what the students know.
  • Make every class an elective and withhold a teacher’s monthly check if his students do not show any interest in going to next month’s classes. (this would sort the wheat from the chaff in a hurry, wouldn’t it? Everyone would be forced to step up their game, or go hungry!)
  • Require every teacher to take a one-year leave of absence every fourth year to work in some “field” other than education (my biggest gripe about education is that educators often have little connection with the world outside of education. It’s why I do faculty internships and help with my wife’s home-based business to help me remain connected.)
  • Require each teacher to provide some sort of evidence that he or she has had a loving relationship with at least one other human being. (what a fascinating job requirement!)
  • Require that all the graffiti accumulated in the school toilets be reproduced on large paper and be hung in the school halls.
  • There should be a general prohibition against the use of the following words and phrases: teach, syllabus, covering ground, I.Q., makeup, test, disadvantaged, gifted, accelerated, enhancement, course, grade, score, human nature, dumb, college material, and administrative necessity.