Is Education Reform Punk Rock?
Do real punk rockers prefer school choice? Not when it’s the major label or the big rock manager offering *choice.*
By Hugo Burnham
Education is the new punk rock. So says the t-shirt sold by my friend, an old punk rock drummer named Martin Atkins who has found, forced and finagled his way into higher education in the USA. As have I. *Higher* for us these days means education beyond K–12.
Education is the new punk rock. So says the t-shirt sold by my friend, an old punk rock drummer named Martin Atkins who has found, forced and finagled his way into higher education in the USA. As have I. *Higher* for us these days means education beyond K–12.Martin played with PIL (that’s his Mickey Mouse watch sound on Metal Box’s immense *Four Enclosed Walls*), Ministry, Killing Joke, Pigface, and others. He wasn’t in NIN, but he was in a NIN video. (Just as I wasn’t inPIL…but I was on the Top of the Pops TV show with them.) And he runs a record label that has released a shitload of records. And he owns a studio. And he’s written two books. He is now teaching at the SAE Institute in Chicago. I’m exhausted just writing this—he’s a bloody machine. Oh, and just got his Bachelor’s Degree. At 55, yet! I got my Bachelor’s Degree at the *right* time, you know, when I was young. Martin is onto his Master’s next (ha ha…got mine already!). And we are both fathers. Alright then, so who’s the real punk here?!
Mind the bollocksWhich leads us to the obvious question: what is punk rock? And what does it have to do with public education? Almost everything you’ve read defining punk is bollocks. Mind them. And ignore anyone over the age of 25 pontificating about what is or is not punk rock. (That should reduce your online reading by about 78%…) The only real punk who’s still punk is Joe Strummer. And maybe Charlie Harper.
So what right do we, as post-punk college professors (hilarious, really, isn’t it?! I still cannot believe that I am 14 years deep into what my Mum calls *A proper job—finally*), and bloody foreigners to boot, have to weigh in on the maelstrom that is the public school debate in these United States? Whether clutching Green Cards or US passports, we’ve both lived here for so many years and guided and watched our progeny engage in public schools that, despite lacking representation for our taxationIs Education Reform Punk Rock? | EduShyster: