Class went well today. I did what I do best--I complained. I complained to my students about how language teaching is supposed to offer them some sort of freedom, but in this system, we don't do that. Language learning should give them the skills and the power to break out of the absurd and cruel existences being offered them by this culture. They should be able to discern the absurdities in their culture and imagine a way out for themselves, and I should be giving them the ability to obtain that sort of freedom. And I complained about how our comp system does just the opposite. We give them absurd, contradictory criteria and tell them to fit their writing to it in order for them to get a good grade. In other words, instead of offering the students freedom, we're teaching them how to conform to the corrupt and ridiculous life being pushed at them by our American capitalist culture. I'm teaching them how to put themselves in bondage.

I warned my students of these things. I hope they understood. I warned them, and I told them to survive but to not buy into the system. I told them stories about the horrible life the ICON system would lead them toward, and I told them to survive now but not to adopt it into their lives. And I read them poetry. I read from Wendell Berry and told them to do plenty of things in their life that won't compute. I told them to be not conformed to the world. I hope it worked. I think it did, at least in part and for today. I hope they remember it.