THE COMING OF THE GUERRILLA TEACHER

Abstract

Not too many years ago it would have been unthinkable that an ordinary classroom teacher - starting alone and possessing few resources other than his wit and nerve - would undertake to overthrow the educational system of his school, district, state or nation. That was before Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. It was before Ho Chi Minh and Caesar Chavez and the Black Panthers. It was before the grass-roots presidential campaign of Gene McCarthy. That is to say, it was before it became clear that modern states and institutions, for all their enormous power and expertise, are not absolute. It was before people realized that, paradoxically, the very power of modern institutions often makes them more vulnerable to challenge by individuals and small groups. Aware of these facts, an ordinary classroom teacher, somewhere in America today, may thus be choosing to go underground.