Thought Crimes

The year is 1984: One Approach to Personal and System Corruption in Education

     Although many exceptional leaders have had an impact on Mr. B's development as a teacher it should come as no surprise that his unconventional teaching methods have faced resistance, particularly from pockets of district leadership. This resistance extends even to seemingly straightforward initiatives such as increasing parent involvement, establishing connections between colleges and K-12 students, and developing innovative curricula.

     Mr. B has found that an important metric for gauging the impact of an idea is the pushback it receives from the system.  While agreeable initiatives, like fundraising efforts, are readily embraced and sometimes appropriated by administration, more provocative ideas that encourage questioning our paradigms and practices are often met with resistance or even targeting and punishment. This culture of cronyism and censorship is unfortunately prevalent in many educational institutions, from pre-K to post-graduate levels.

A Response to Censorship

     In response to a conflict with a vice-principal over teacher censorship, Mr. B developed a lesson plan intended as a professional development tool for administrators to self-evaluate their ethics and the ethical health of their institutions. Although the vice-principal declined an invitation to debate the matter, the lesson plan was presented as a dual art piece at the 2024 smARTshow. It serves as a guide for personal and professional development, encouraging others to contribute to this "open source" lesson plan based on the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Mr. B’s “Thought Crimes” are particularly effective for mini-discussions based on hypothetical and true scenarios, raising important questions for anyone working in education.

Above is the first part of Mr. B’s smARTShow art piece where he punished himself by writing lines from the original email sent accusing him of using derogatory language (he didn’t). Line #36 is a more accurate representation of the VP’s intent according to the artist.