COVID-19 Exposes Contradictions in Capitalist Schooling
USA, July 21 —What kind of parent gambles with their child’s health? Is returning to work as a teacher or custodian a death sentence? These are questions that wake you up in the middle of the night. When and how to reopen schools is a burning issue.
Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos insist that schools must reopen. That will happen in some places, especially in private, charter and religious schools. But Trump and Devos are rich, and Covid-19 is killing the working class—the ones whose work made them rich.
Teachers in Florida (USA) protest reckless reopening of schools as Covid-19 cases soar.
Some school districts are trying a “hybrid” plan with half the young people at home and half in the building at any given time, social-distancing and wearing masks. Many big-city districts and states with large urban centers have ordered schools closed until Covid-19 rates go down. Unless the virus is under control, even districts that plan to open will go online at some point.
But working-class families are near broke, broke, or very broke. Capitalism doesn’t let us feed or house our children unless we work. That wakes you up at night, too.
Most of us have spent time in school—often at least a decade in capitalist schools. We know, or at least sense, that schools are the site of a huge social contradiction. Now they are also sites of life-and-death contradictions.
Schools are capitalist institutions that teach racism and other capitalist ideas. Public elementary schools arose to train children to be punctual, obedient wage slaves with the skills that factories required. Every school kid in the world absorbs patriotism as they learn to sing the national anthem.
Schools differentiate social class. Working-class youths learn to get assigned work done. Some – mainly from better-off families — learn to internalize the values and administer the system. Ruling-class youths learn to expect the privileges of innovating and taking advantage of others’ labor. In the process, schools perpetuate systemic racism and capitalism’s division of “mental” from “manual” labor.
But children also learn important social values in school. Even in kindergarten, they begin to see themselves as part of society. They learn to take turns, to listen to each other, to play nice and not run with scissors. As Soviet educator Makarenko pointed out, our ties with schoolmates can become our strongest social bonds.
Most young people can’t articulate the contradictions of the school system. But they say things like: I miss my friends but I don’t miss the bullies. I miss science projects, but I don’t miss homework and tests. I miss Mr. X, but I don’t miss the racist teachers or the school cops.
Communist revolution will destroy class society and its schools. Comradely social relations among young people will become primary. Without bosses and exploitation, education will be remade. We’ll raise children to work cooperatively to meet the needs of society, rather than compete for wage-slave jobs. Communism will recognize that all meaningful work requires both thinking and doing, “mental” and “manual” labor. Young people and adults will respect work and learn from one another.
The most vulnerable workers, mainly Black and latinx industrial, hospitality and agricultural workers are the likeliest to die of Covid-19. Their children have the fewest options. Working-class parents who need a job to pay the bills, buy groceries and keep medical insurance, want children safe in school while their parents are at work. But they also know that schools are not safe for anyone during a pandemic.
Teachers want to stay safe, but they yearn to be in their classrooms to share what they have learned with their students—the social relations, skills and knowledge. They aren’t always aware they’re also sharing capitalist ideology and social relations.
The reformist critique of “distance learning” during the pandemic has centered around unequal access to time, devices, and internet access. Obviously working-class young people and their families had a hard time with this during the spring, and things don’t look much better for the fall.
Most teachers believe what they’ve been taught: those schools are 100% a good thing. Most don’t question the capitalist basis of education. Most teacher activists are won to reformism—the fight for smaller classes, better buildings, equipment and supplies, more “relevant” curriculum, as well as better salaries and conditions.
Capitalism Has No Good Solution
How do we fight for schools to reopen when that will mean the deaths of young people, teachers, bus drivers and custodians?
How do we fight for schools to stay closed when that will mean that young people are increasingly isolated, and many families forced into unsafe childcare situations?
The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the deepest contradictions of capitalism, including schools. We can’t have safe spaces for young people until the whole society is safe—and capitalism stands exposed as an ever-deadlier space for us all.
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