Interesting Day - Part 2

The second experience which brought on this reflective mood in me was centered around Teacher Auditions which I conducted for Margaret at the Princeton Review (where I work as a teacher/tutor). The purpose of the Audition is similar to that of an interview, only for TPR it's usually the first step of the process (the second and third being scoring well on a practice test and then surviving training). My job in these auditions is really easy. I basically sit there and watch as potential teachers get up and teach something (ANYTHING). I evaluate the candidates on how articulate, engaging and comfortable they are up at the board and basically decide whether or not I feel they'll survive our training process (which isn't very easy).

Today, two older gentlemen were among the candidate I was evaluating. As we got into their auditions I noticed that neither of them really incorporated the criteria Margaret had covered (as characteristics of TPR teachers at the beginning of the interview) into their teaching styles. In fact, aside from perhaps a couple really open-ended questions they asked, their auditions were not engaging or using a Socratic Approach (asking questions which lead the audience in a specific direction). They were not engaging at all, and a couple time they mumbled making it difficult for me to really understand what they were saying. I rejected them from the training because of their performance. Something which still is on my mind (perhaps as guilt) is that I did pass another candidate in the audition who wasn't entirely too different. His energy was rather low, he didn't use the Socratic method so much as lectured and wasn't very engaging. Nonetheless, I passed him. When I consider why I did him, but not the two older gentlemen I have only one answer in mind: because he was younger.

It's that simple. I felt that because of the younger candidate's age he was a better candidate for training. I felt he could learn, incorporate and excel at the methods TPR teachers used to teach their students in an active, engaging way. I won't go so far as to say that my mind is free of prejudice. Nonetheless, I did try (as much as I could) to justify sending the older gentlemen to training, but I couldn't. I looked in their resumes, but couldn't find comparable work or teaching experience. In terms of their overall presentation, they just weren't a good fit for the company. I had a job to do, and that's exactly what I did.

But there's more to it than that. The excuse for aiding in genocide made famous at Nuremburg is hardly enough to take one off the hook. Sure the situation is different, but a certain principle remains true. It is simply not enough for us as individuals, as supposedly responsible members of society (which this world needs many many more of) to goose step on in front of the Swastikas, raising our arms in salute and continuing to claim that we were only doing our jobs; that we cannot possibly afford to care, because caring in this exploitative, uber-competitive world requires simply too expensive.

In that instance I saw why Social Security (yes, a monthly living stipend provided by the government) is such a necessity. It is necessary for the elders in our society to have some form of support-system, some variety of safety net, when they arrive at the age when they may no longer be able to provide for themselves as they once were able to (provide for themselves and others). Through no fault of their own, but because of their old age and perhaps buying into the long-forgotten promises of our government support all citizens no matter their color, creed, gender or age, these men simply had,to use the horribly dehumanizing language of modern business, fewer marketable skills. Their auditions didn't showcase good presentation skills. Their resumes weren't particularly effective. They didn't have any skills I, representing an employer, could really use.

In youth pursuing our dreams is easy because the world is fulfilled with infinite potential and opportunities. As we grow older though and our minds potentially close and our positions grow harder and harder; our roots growing deeper and deeper into the familiar grounds, the ground we have always known and are afraid to be uprooted and leave; we cannot so easily adapt to the exponentially competitive knowledge economy. Mark my words, for one day it will happen to us who are young and think we can conquer the world. It will happen to us too, unless we create our own way in the world. Perhaps that is why we race to accumulate wealth for it gives us a means to an end that is increasingly difficult to achieve in this world without some form of wealth or power: freedom.

Pursuit of monetary wealth can never be an end in and of itself, though. It is a slow poison that spreads throughout your body; wrapping its deadly tentacles around your soul and transfixing your gaze onto the glitter of material wealth; slowly killing us from the insider out. That poison now grips this society as we teeter on the edge of a sharp precipice. We are no longer a city on a hilltop. Our foundations eroded from under us just as we have eroded them. We have killed all that we were and we will continue to kill all that we could potentially be because we simply cannot stop. Like the heroin addict whose cravings he cannot escape, we too love our lifestyles. After all, how can we let go when they just make us feel so good?

If you cannot see the signs of decay within our society, simply look at the decay that surrounds us. Look a the decay of our environment upon which all life itself depends. The earth is feverish; in the throes of a most virulent illness. This is not progress!

This is madness.