How my punk rock youth shaped my teaching.

I grew up a Midwest punk...then I became a teacher.

I spent my high school years cramming into vans with my friends and going to punk shows. I was practicing in garages, basements, and barns. My formative years were in punk bands playing shows, making music, and building life long friendships.

The Peabodies!

The punk band I spent my youth in. This was probably taken around 1999 at a hall show in Saginaw, MI.

Those shows, the attitude, and that punk rock ethic made me the teacher I am today.

I have been a classroom teacher for 14 years, teaching social studies from 7th grade to 12th grade. Currently you can find me teaching government to seniors at a high school in Mesa, Arizona and serving as president of my local teachers' union.

It took those 14 years and a conversation with a principal in Illinois to realize punk rock made me the teacher I am today. It was one of those moments when the clouds part, the ethereal choir starts to sing (or maybe in this case the buzz of distortion and feedback kicks on), and a bright light shines down and it just hits you. I've always known that those years spent at hall shows and writing music in garages built the adult I am and the way I view the world and my place in it but I had never really put together how it made me teach the way I teach.

Passion, equity, relationships, bucking the status quo, and a big old pile of DIY really drive how I teach and how I view education.

Passion:
Playing in a punk band taught me that passion is a key ingredient to loving what you do and getting others to slam dance along to it. I spent several years teaching economics to 12th graders. Trust me there is a reason the subject is referred to as the "dismal science." I love it though. AP Macroeconomics was one of my favorite courses I have ever taught. So I brought my passion to the classroom. I was amped to talk to my students about it. I was on fire for C+I+G+Xn = GDP. That passion got students to buy in. It got them to draw graphs, shift curves, and learn Long Run Aggregate Supply.

Equity:
I've recently started some work in my school district around equity in education. The work is around creating a system where all students can learn and where all students can access quality education. Creating education that supports all students no matter who they are, where they come from, how they love, how they pray or not, and where they live is so incredibly important. I want my classroom to be that place. Years of hanging out with the punks, kids who were thought of as outcasts and others, kids who found a place where they could belong, built a commitment in me to make sure we don't "other" those around us. We should support, lift up, rely on, and embrace our community of learners.

Punk rock meant equity to me. Those shows were a place where everyone could come and belong and join in. I played so many shows where there was no stage. Where the band blended into the audience. Where gang vocals and sing-a-longs made everyone a part of the show. The more diverse voices the better. Punk rock is this thing where anyone can grab a guitar, crank up an amp, and make music. We broke down barriers, lifted each other up, and supported our scene.

Relationships:
The friends I made driving across states, sleeping on floors, eating Denny's after midnight, between bands, on the stage, and after shows meant the world to me. Relationships are key to punk rock. It was a network of bands, promoters, small record labels, artists, and fans who made all those albums I loved and all those shows I saw possible.

The same is true about my classroom. Those relationships I build with kids make learning possible. Going to the school play, checking in on how they did in their last race, talking to them about their plans for after high school all help build those relationship. Starting off my year with some silly communication games makes the work of discussing public policy easier later on. Letting my students know I care and acting with grace when they need it helps my classroom be a better place to learn.

But that network is also beyond my students. Its my PLC, its my district committees, its my union. They each help me be a better person. I'm not alone in my teaching job I am supported by so many people and building those relationships means that we all benefit and that we all help make our schools better places.

Bucking the Status Quo:
As a government teacher I often crack a joke about having gone from fighting the man to being the man. My students know I was in punk bands, they've seen the pictures. In reality though, I'm still fighting the status quo. Punk rock itself is a status quo breaker. It wasn't about guitar solos and arenas, and selling loads of records. It was about turning up the volume, speaking your mind, and letting the world know that it had some problems. I've tried to turn up my microphone as an educators and let the system know it has some problems. Whether that's pushing back against the idea of "this is how we've always done it" or fighting for better school funding in my state (google Arizona public education funding and cry with me) I've spent my teaching career rallying the troops, sounding the alarm, and building better solutions.

Our students need champions. Our students need someone who will stand up for them and fight back against a system that marginalizes them. They need educators who will stand in their corner and demand better schools, better funding, better solutions.

Fighting the man!

Speaking at a press conference for the Invest in Education ballot initiative I co-chaired in 2018.

DIY:
Being in punk bands meant doing a lot of it ourselves (DIY 'til we die). We taught ourselves how to record albums on a four track. I learned html to create our website (angelfire what?!). We made our own cassette tape jackets. We built stages, printed patches, and put on shows. I had friends who started record labels, created zines, and built little punk rock businesses. We owned it all. It was ours.

I start my year with my 12th graders defining some big concepts that will carry us through the semester. I could just hand them some text book definitions for government, democracy, and politics and be done in 5 minutes but I want them to own the learning in our room. I want them to create their definitions. So with the help of some resources, some markers, a giant stack of sticky notes, and a whole lot of conversations they get it done. The result is three big definitions that they create. This means that when we refer back to them throughout the year they own them. They can jump back to what they made and when I ask if gerrymandering is democratic they have a basis they own for that discussion.

I still have one of those tapes my band made. The one where I drew they cover. The one where my band mates and I spent a night folding and cutting the jackets for. The one we recorded in a garage with two mics. We owned that whole thing and it means the world to me. I think our students should feel that way about their learning.

The tape!

Our first full length tap. Total DIY in 1998.

I am excited to dive deeper into what punk rock can mean in the classroom, how punks like me are shaping education, and how a punk rock mindset, whether you're a punk or not, can create spaces where students can succeed and grow.