Classick Frustration:

Interview with an Ex-Teacher

John Potter (pseudonym) taught at Milford Elementary School from 1979 – 2000. After twenty-one years of teaching, he resigned to start a small pottery shop near his birthplace. Now he lives at the edges of poverty, making odd ceramics and doing gardening here and there. Despite this, he says he's happier than he's ever been. This interview was conducted in May 2006 while he was firing some funky earthenware and sipping some home-grown chamomile tea.
Tim: What did you enjoy most about teaching?
John: Interacting with inquisitive minds was (and is) a wonderful experience. Young kids are seldom shy about asking questions or probing issues. It's inspiring to see them explore. It is sometimes alarming to see when they give up. Children help me feel more hope for humanity.
Tim: Why did you quit teaching?
John: The teaching profession has changed a lot in recent decades. Now it's much more test-oriented and teachers themselves have been systematically disempowered. Bureaucrats who know little about deep learning are trying to control education to manufacture more data.
Tim: Why's this happening?
John: I suspect there's a capitalist mandate behind it. That mandate is rooted in a culture of greed and hungry competition. The real agenda comes down to control and conformity. It's rooted in a conservative tendency to increase conformity.
Tim: So why are you creating pottery?
John: It's beautifully absurd. When I'm at the wheel, I can enjoy the myth that I'm making something useful. And none of my stuff is mass-produced. There is too much conformity in the world today. Our real hope is in the imagination of non-conformists.