Education, Bicycle and Divorce

[Before I share my dream from last night, which so well reflects my deep long contentious relationship with the field of Education in W. society (and my sense of marginalization);  I'll premise this with the other factor of 'me and my bike' (i.e., bicycle) which I have been pedaling since I was a kid--not the same bike of course, but I am close to my bikes and the art of bicycling without being dependent on CO2 dependent non-renewable oil reserves... as well, you ought to know probably my relationship with the professional field of Education goes back to 1979 when I decided to get a BEd. degree after my Environmental Biology BSc. From the moment I entered as a student in the Faculty of Education to my days of service as a school teacher, I have been immensely frustrated by the "average teacher" (educator) and the "System of Education" they produce and promote. In my dissertation (2003), in a Faculty of Education, I have a section in the End Notes that explains why I had finally come to a place during the dissertation research of where I had to admit to myself and share with the public, that I have "divorced Education" as I see it a dysfunctional relationship. I feel I have healed some of that relationship but not very much since then. This dream below is one of many, and an expression of where I am at still.]

I dreamt last night of getting on my bicycle and having three layers of coats and sweaters to keep warm because it was a frost cold winter morning and I was riding a long way downtown to go to a city-wide Education Conference (all the city's public school teachers, administrators, etc.). When I got there, I pulled my bike into an inner square surrounded my high rise buildings in which the conference was being held inside. I tried to find a bike rack to lock up my bike. It turned out there were not any to be seen and so as I usually do at places like this I find a bench or a pole to lock my bike up to. I began locking it up to a difficult to get at bench structure and had lots of people from the conference starting to sit on the benches and having their coffee and smokes (as teachers are notoriously famous for), and my keys for the lock got bent and and one broke, and it turned out then I had to move my bike because it was sort of blocking people and so I looked for a better spot and couldn't find one and I was getting frustrated. I decided this is ridiculous that in this day and age, supposedly where we are a W. developed nation that cares about shifting our economy and life-styles to non-carbon dependent ways due to climate change, there are not more bike racks and I didn't see any bikes. So I wheel my bike into the building reception area for the conference and have my bike coat off and falling on the floor and I am sweaty and its cumbersome wheeling around furniture and people walking around and I find someone whom I can talk to at the reception counter and I ask them politely if they can accommodate a place for my bike to be locked up in the building for the day while I'm attending presentations. Well, this begins a long sequence and major part of the dream where various people have to ask other people, and they ask other people, and finally some young people show up, I'm more frustrated at the delays and I know the time is running out before the first session starts, and they try to help me. It took them the longest time to figure out what exactly I was wanting, and I had to repeat my story and needs to them, and it was going on and on and finally there were a couple of young people who had the idea that I could put the bike locked up in the Outdoor and Environmental Education room that was designated for the conference. I thought, great that's a good place for it and it will remind people of the role of bicycles in our world today, and that there's visibility deserved for this marginalized way of transport and pleasure. And, so this seemed promising at first, then there were problems and we never made it down to that room, and I didn't have a conference map so I couldn't get there on my own, and was dependent on their aid, and it got worse and I was mad by now and a bit snarky with them and critical, and I noticed at one point a young good looking woman helping with the conference had her arm in mine and was rubbing her boobs up against me and I said "So why are you being so nice to me?" (as young beautiful women do not come up to me out of the blue and do this-- too bad)... and, she didn't answer but I quickly figured out she was part of the security team of the conference and she would likely calm me down, which she did and I said to her, "It's nice." But then she left and was trying to help with the other guys and the crowds in the reception area were heavy and moving fast to get to their first sessions and I was mad as a hornet with my coats falling all over and I am still wondering where to put my bike, as I cannot just abandon it. 

From quite a distance through the crowd I see the young woman looking for me with a good deal of energy like she had finally found the place for me to put my bicycle and I was starting to move toward her and couldn't move fast as I was trying to avoid bumping into the people and then I couldn't see the young woman as she left and thought I was closer behind her, I guess... and that was when I decided "fuck it" I am out of here. I rode home, back up a steep hill and to where Barbara was in the house, and I knew she would be surprised I was back. I said, something, but she knew... she knew me and Education people just don't get along. I awoke. The End.

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I don't know if readers here are life-time bicyclists like I am. I will ride until the day I die. Maybe you even ride as recreation. I will say, if you have ridden a bike as long as I have you'll know by experience what it feels like to be systematically, everyday, marginalized (oppressed). Yes, I feel victimized by the automobile and everything it is and stands for symbolically. Yes, I have little sympathies for the automobile and everything it stands for. I have owned a vehicle and I was part of that world of domination. Domination is part of life if you live in a world of automobiles as the most important factor in how cities are designed. I have studied this phenomenon since I was in my early 20s and knew that the automobile-oil dependent design paradigm of modern city life is what will kill us all and most of the planet with it. The critics of the automobile-oil-dependent paradigm are many. I believed them then, and over 40 years now, I still believe it and I am still despairing over how little our society has changed in North America in its relationship with the private auto and all forms of oil-dependent transportation. It sickens me. I continue to ride my bike. Barbara and I have not had a private auto since 1993. We don't plan on buying one. Yes, we know they are great for a lot of things and we rent a car rarely a few times a year. We also borrow other people's vehicles, and we believe in car coops but all of these are not near radical enough changes and they don't impact people's attitudes and righteousness when it comes to owning their own auto. Our young 30s something American neighbors across the street from where we live in Carbondale, IL (now 8 yrs) have eight cars for 2 houses, if you can believe it. These young people rarely walk anywhere. They take their cars to the local stores for 'milk' ... it's unbelievable how an Education System, that in the 1970s (with Earth Day) was supposedly becoming conscious of the world we need to take care of and the word "Ecology" was becoming more common and designs of things (including some curriculum) were changing-- but what I see across to my neighbors street is near typical all over, and I don't see more bicycles on the streets, although I am seeing more bike lanes (which is a small good change). I could go on and on with the failure of modern Education. I am obviously still divorced from it and it from me. Educators are the least interested in my work on the culture of fear and fearlessness compared to anyone else, as far as I can tell. It's pathetic! 

What am I going to do about it? I keep writing articles and sending them to Education journals and keep getting rejected. The divorce continues. 

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