The Oldest Profession on Earth

I know, I know, "Prostitution is the oldest profession on Earth," I hear you saying, "this is a blog on teaching, correct?" Correct. And in my first official post as a blogger, I thought it appropriate to come with something provocative to get the anonymous reader's juices flowin' and their interests peaked. Linking prostitution t0 teaching is, I think, quite provocative. So, having skillfully commanded your attention, let me come right out and say it: Prostitution--while I am sure its been around for near as long as there has been both goods and bodily fluids for exchange--could not possibly be the oldest job on the planet. Teaching has gotta be older. After all, someone surely must of taught the beaten-path walkers of yore about basic units of exchange; the relative worth of certain sex acts; the best beaten path corners on which to stand to pick up a B.C. john. At the very least, it is a tie: Professional screwing and professional instructing (in one form or another) have been around for time immemorial.

And the ancientness of these two career paths is not all they have in common. For much of their histories, these two jobs have been almost wholly the province of marginalized women. This has been especially the case in the United States, where Puritan taboos on publicized sexuality and Victorian obsessions with femininity (as properly defined inside the patriarchal, husband-headed home) have slotted these jobs for unmarried women especially far down the status hierarchy. Of course, the town spinster never experienced the kind of abuse as did the town whore (people rarely stoned or imprisoned the kindergarten teacher) still teachers represented a group of women to which most people would just assume turn their backs--Those [women] who can't [find a husband], teach.

I think about the inter-twined historical development of the teaching profession in the USA (from the Dame schools in Puritan New England to the Progressive-era compulsory schooling movement) and the social marginalization of the wrong-kind of women (plain, unmarried, poor, non-white) a lot these days as I consider how it is that the school system in which I work--Baltimore City Public Schools--can fail so miserably to achieve even a little bit at the task with which it is charged: Educate the youth. Up an down, schools and administrative offices are staffed with too many of the criminally under-educated, incompetent, and corrupt. And nothing of significance is being done about. Teachers are disgruntled, tired, under-paid, and far too many are [like their bosses] under-educated and apathetic. And nothing of significance is being done about that, either. Why? Because very few have ever [not just recently, ever] really cared public schools--from its birth, an institution staffed by low-status women serving low status kids. Public schools were and still are a band-aid solution for the problem of societal others (with unmarried, poor women as the teachers and Immigrant, minority, and poor kids as the students) and the band aid so placed, no one really gives a damn if anything is healing underneath.

I know, I know, "What about No child Left Behind?," I hear you saying as you read, "sure seems like some people give a damn." Surely, some do give a damn enough to create legislation mandating that schools keep tabs on the "performance" of everyone--even the poor, and non-white(!)--on standardized tests, attaching penalties for schools that consistently fail to make progress toward 100%(!) achievement. But, they certainly do not give a damn enough to ensure that it is properly funded nor do they give a damn enough to actually develop checks to determine whether the markers of "performance" and "achievement" advocated by the standardized testing regime say much of anything real about the respective educational opportunities being enjoyed by students in different schooling contexts. One thing we do know from all this "disaggregated" data--Poor and minority kids, do poorly. But, we didn't need standardized testing mandates to tell us this. And I do not need a well developed historical perspective to make a prediction: NCLB will do nothing to "fix" this reality, because poor and minority kids (like poor, unmarried women) are a group to which most people would just assume turn their backs.
So what am I--well-schooled, middle class, white, and male [though unmarried]--doing here? Ummm....good question.