65 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 7 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

My Life and "The Seventeen Traditions"

By       (Page 4 of 5 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   7 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Kevin Gosztola
Become a Fan
  (62 fans)

I remember hearing a similar and less pointed question from my father or mother that would be simply, “What did you do today at school?” It wasn’t so much addressing the learning aspect but addressing the fact that I had spent over 7 hours of my time today at school. If I didn’t do something productive, that certainly was something to be worried about.

Often, I would answer “nothing.” The first few times I answered that it was a cop-out so that I did not have to talk about school. “Nothing” was an answer that led to sardonic remarks on how I did nothing that day. But after a while, I thought about it and I really wasn’t doing anything in most of my classes. I enjoyed going to school but in retrospect, I do not know what I gained from going to America's finest indoctrination service. 

For much of high school, during a time when the human mind has a chance to be remolded and reprogrammed to think correctly for the rest of life, my teachers all too often “lectured” (if you could call it that) from a textbook and then left us to do whatever for the remaining forty-five minutes to an hour left in class. That “whatever” consisted of worksheets, readings, long-term projects like papers or group assignments, and sometimes projects in the computer lab.

Teachers were not offering us advice on how to take in what we were learning and apply it to our future lives in American society. And they most certainly were not offering us any ideas on civic responsibility.

This is coming from a kid who was labeled as a “gifted and talented” student in 1st grade and asked if I wanted to go to school somewhere else where they pushed students to learn more than other students who were “incapable” of learning.

But let’s table this discussion of education and come back to it in another article. I’ll move on to talking about the influence of my local library and books in my life.

From kindergarten to now, I have always been addicted to books. I have always felt the need to have a book with me for down time so that I can read something, whether it is to learn or for entertainment purposes. Literature and non-fiction have earned an importance in my life that is unordinary for my generation. 

I am pleased that around 2003 I began to read political and current affairs non-fiction books that most high school students never touch. I began with Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men and Dude, Where’s My Country?. I moved on to Al Franken’s books. I read Bill O’Reilly (yes, Bill O’Reilly). I read Everything That’s Bad is Good For You, Freakonomics, and The Republican War on Science.

Come my senior year, I was deep into political reading and was deeply into it because of my attachment to blogging and writing. I read my first Chomsky book, Hegemony or Survival, while working at a poll station in May 2006. I began to read books that questioned 9/11---books by David Ray Griffin, which are written quite well and make very concise arguments detailing the need for a further investigation. I also got into books detailing the history of American interventionism like William Blum’s Rogue State and Howard Zinn’s A Power Government Cannot Suppress.

In the way of literature, I read Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 and discovered I deeply love dystopian fiction. I have since then enjoyed It Can Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal. I’ve also read Junky by William Burroughs, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.

I began to read works from the Sixties just recently and now I am reading books that dive deep into the inner workings of American foreign policy and a book on COINTELPRO.

This education and argument tradition was not imposed by my mother or father. I picked it up on my own. But they led me to the library. And had I never been taught the importance of reading, I would be consumed by video games and other technology today. 

VIII. The Tradition of Discipline

“If parents don’t discipline, or they’re indecisive about it, their children won’t respect them.”

Ralph’s parents followed a system of reprimands that became systemically sharper and had more consequences with each reprimand. Sometimes it involved chores. Rarely did it involve spanking or beatings. Those type of measures “horrified” Ralph’s parents.

My parents, unlike Ralph’s, did not remain together and are now separated. The system of discipline broke down at some point in my childhood. I knew it. My mother knew it. And it created a Catch-22 for our family.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Kevin Gosztola Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

We Do Not Consent to Warrantless "Porno-Scanning" in Airports

How Private Prison Corporations Hope Arizona's SB1070 Will Lead to Internment Camps for Illegals

Do They Put Lipstick on Pigs at the Funny Farm?

Why the Battle Against TSA Groping and Body Scanners is Justified

Give Obama a Chance to Do What?

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend