It's hard to overemphasize the importance of this hidden curriculum. Lessons unintentionally taught that way can last a lifetime. For examplele, the person who taught me the most about tyranny and abuse of power was Miss Priest my fourth grade teacher. (Behind her back we kids called her: "Miss Priest, the big fat beast.") Feared by all, respected by few, this harpy extorted compliance via credible threats and actual violence. A ruler across the knuckles of my out-stretched hands brought me to heel, for example.
Eventually she went too far. She held a youngster against a steam radiator until he became sufficiently compliant. His burns did not get her fired, as you might expect. But she was summarily transferred to another school. But not before she unintentionally taught me about the dangers of unchecked power. I learned that via what I lived. Miss Priest unintentionally taught me this lesson way, way back in 1950. But I have not forgotten.
Here's another example, drawn from these same 'good old days. This one concerns some Catholic parish schools of that era. In those unholy places there were overworked, under appreciated nuns who bullied, slapped and otherwise mistreated the children in their charge. I'm not sure what these nuns thought they were doing. Perhaps they intended to make 'better' Catholics. But they certainly weren't making most kids better Christians. In fact a lot of these kids actually learned that all the sacerdotal preachments about the redeeming value of love, mercy and forgiveness, was only talk. More generally, they also learned it's not what people say, but what they do that counts. A valuable lesson, to be sure. But definitely NOT included in the official curriculum of any parish schools.
Here's a final instance involving opposite circumstances than those that prevailed in Miss Priest's classroom. It's a sappily liberal "freedom, lack of oppression" classroom, where lax discipline makes learning impossible and safety problematic. It's where vast amounts of faculty and student time are spent trying to maintain at least a semblance of order and civility. Many students come away from this kind of experience distrusting freedom and longing for anything that will end chaos and maks things safe. In short, they learn to fear freedom and prefer tyranny.
Do children learn what they live? Count on it.
To examine these and similar issues further, see articles at www.newfoundations.com
