page 6
the ram's horn
.October, 1969
The editorial below by GERALD FARBER originally appeared in THE
CALIFORNIA AGGIE in 1967. It has since been reprinted in college newspapers all
over the countiy including at least two North Carolina campus newspapers, THE
APPALACHIAN, and THE FOUNTAINHEAD, from East Carolina University.
Students are niggers. When you get that straight, our schools begin to make sense.
It's more Important, though, to understand why they're niggers. If we follow that
question seriously enough, it will lead us past the zone of academic bullshit, where
dedicated teachers pass their knowledge on to a new generation, and into the
nittygritty of human needs and hang-ups. And from there, we can go on to consider
whether it might ever be possible for students to come up from slavery.
First, let's see what's happening now. Let's look at the role students play in what we
like to call education.
At Cal State LA., where I teach, the students have separate and unequal dining
facilities. If I take them to the faculty dining room, my colleagues get uncomfortable,
as though there were a bad smell. If I eat in the student cafeteria, I become known as
the educational equivalent of a nigger lover. In at least one building, there are even rest
rooms which students may not use. At Cal State, also, there is an unwritten law against
student-facuity love-making. Fortunately, this anti-miscegenation law, like its
Southern counterpart, is not 100 per cent effective.
Students at Cal State are politically disenfranchised. They are in an academic
Lowndes County. Most of them can vote in national elections-their average age is
about 26—but they have no voice in the decisions which affect their academic lives.
The students are, it is true, allowed to have a toy government of their own. It is a
government run for the most part by Uncle Toms and concerned principally with
trivia. The faculty and administrators decide what courses will be offered; the students
get to choose their own Homecoming Queen. Occassionally, when student leaders get
uppity and rebellious, they're either ignored, put off with trivial concessions, or
maneuvered expertly out of position.
Students told what to think
A student at Cal State is expected to know his place. He calls a faculty member
"Sir," or "Doctor," or "Professor"-and he smiles and shuffles some as he stands
outside the professor's office waiting for permission to enter. The faculty te'l him
what courses to take (in my department, English, even electives have to be approved
by a faculty member); they tell him what to read, what to write, and frequently, they
set the margins on his typewriter. They tell him what's true and what isn't. Some
teachers insist that they encourage dissent but they're almost always jiving and every
student knows it Tell the man what he wants to hear or he'll fail your ass out of the
course.
When a teacher says, "jump," students jump. I know of one professor who refused
to take up class time for exams and required students to show up for tests at 6:30 in
the morning. And they did, by God! Another, at exam time, provides answer cards to
be filled out-each one enclosed in a paper bag with a hole cut in the top to see
through. Students stick their writing hands in the bags while taking the test. The
teacher isn't a provo; I wish he were. He does it to prevent cheating. Another colleague
once caught a student reading during one of his lectures and threw her book against
the wall. Still another lectures his students into stupor and then screams at them when
they fall asleep.
The Student
Just last week, during the first meeting of a class, one girl got up to leave after
about 10 minutes had gone by. The teacher rushed over, grabbed her by the arm,
saying "This class is NOT dismissed!" and led h3r back to her seat. On the same day,
another teacher began by informing his class that he does not like beards, moustaches,
long hair on boys, or capri pants on girls, and will not tolerate any of that in his class.
The class, incidentally, consisted mostly of high school teachers.
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Auschwitz Educational Approach
Even more discouraging than this Auschwitz approach to education is the fact that
the students take it. They haven't gone through twelve years of public schools for
nothing. They ve learned one thing and perhaps only one thing during those twelve
years. They've forgotten their algebra. They're hopelessly vague about chemistry and
physics. They've grown to fear and resent literature. They write like they've been
lobotomized. But, Jesus, can they follow orders! Freshmen come up to me with an
essay and ask if I want it folded and whether their name should be in the uppt3r l
hand corner. And I want to cry and kiss them and caress their poor, tortured heads.
Students don t ask that orders make sense. They give up expecting things to make
sense long before they leave elementary school. Things are true because the teachers
says they're true. At a very early age, we all learn to accept "two truths" as did certain
medieval churchmen. Outside of class, things are true to your tongue, your fingers,
your stomach, your heart Inside class, things are true by reason of authoirty. And
that s just fine because you don't care anyway. Miss Wiedemeyer tells you a noun is a
person, place, or thing. So let it be. You don't give a rat's ass; she doesn't give a rat s
ass.
The important thing is to please her. Back in kindergarten you found out that
teachers only love children who stand in nice straight lines. And that's where it's been
ever since.
White and black kids alike, is a 12-year course in
how to be slaves What else could explain what I see in a freshman class? They've go
underne^lT^'^ ^ obliging and ingratiating on the surface but hostile and resistan
reraanl7p*^th^^ slaves, students vary in their awareness of what's going on. Some
now and Put-on for what it is and even let their rebellion break throug
b?aTnwa.hi? TK ^he "good students"-have been more deep y
earrTbf;,I^®H greedy mouths. They're pathetically
still find in thp Q They're like those old, grey-headed house niggers you ca
''tits us rea^ '^^at all the fu^ is about because Mr. Charlie
entirelv^nTr''^*^^^ f^uirements tend to favor the Toms and screen out the rebels. Not
perS; we I ^ Cal State LA. are expert con artists who know
hat s happening. They want the degree or the 2-S and play the game.