Perhaps our most fundamental "divide" is in trying to establish the correct balance between personal freedom and being part of making society a better place. We see it with vaccines most acutely right now, but the tension between those two "goods" has always been there. Somehow, we basically try to balance "give me liberty or give me death" with "we are the UNITED states" and "we are proud to be Americans."
My view is that anti-vaxxers are essentially saying, "Give me liberty AND give me death." But that ends up not being a convincing argument when people aren't interested in logic and facts, elevating emotions like fear and distrust instead. Most people are not actively courting death.
About 10-15 percent of smokers develop lung cancer, and another 10-20 percent die of heart disease of something related. But a smoker might cite the flip side of those stats and point out that a large percentage of smokers do NOT get cancer or heart disease. And everyone dies sometime of something.
A problem is that there is no accepted way to measure that tension between liberty and community and whether the right balance has been achieved. No one likes to be told what to do -- that is simply part of the human condition -- and that helps explain some of the vaccine controversy. But we are often told exactly what to do, and we do it. Even anti-vaxxers follow certain rules, laws, mandates, and cautions.
I read that the former president held another in-person rally the other day and he made the point that he and his family had been vaccinated, and he advised the crowd to get vaccinated. The crowd booed (even Trump wasn't being "Trumpy" enough) and he immediately backed away from his advice and extolled the benefits of freedom and liberty. But perhaps a few in the crowd heard him and softened their opposition to giving up ANY liberties.
A woman on the news this morning complained about her child being forced to wear a mask, saying, "He doesn't WANT to wear a mask." That strikes me as a weak argument. I can think of dozens of things that schools force students to do during the school day, and if given a chance many students would ignore some or most rules. So schools don't give them a chance.
Students need to be in a classroom when not traveling during approved passing times. There are dress codes, though some are more strict than others. There is one start and stop time for the school day and for each class period (in secondary schools). Seating charts are used by many teachers, to help them keep organized and to keep potential problems separated. Schools are hardly places where students are "in charge."
When a test is assigned, students can't simply opt for another date. They can work the system by feigning illness or simply skipping, but they will need to eventually take the test if they want to progress through the year.
I was thinking about the mother who based her protest against masks in school on her son's opinion. My first thought was that the kid may have simply adopted his mother's opinions. Lots of studies show that high school students basically reflect their parents' political views, for instance. After all, they spend a lot of time with their parents and trust them.
The longer I taught the more I understood that a lot of student behavior had almost nothing to do with me or my teaching or even with school in general.
Long ago, I was teaching a British Literature course and one junior boy just never turned in any of the assigned essays. It was puzzling, since he always participated in class discussions, clearly was doing the reading, and never missed class. I regularly reminded him of due dates and twice reached out to his parents with updates on his poor marks.
Finally, one day I asked him to hang back for a minute after the class ended and I point-blank said, "I don't understand why you have not completed any of the three essays assigned so far," and said I was concerned that he would be flunking the course. I confessed puzzlement, since he was clearly a bright, engaged student.
He never flinched. "I love this course," he said. "I look forward to it every day. And I do write the papers." He rummaged in his backpack for a minute and pulled out a typed draft of the most recent essay, but didn't hand it to me.
"I don't turn them in to piss off my mother," he said.
I had no ready response, and I never learned what dynamics were in play there. Later in the term, the boy suddenly began handing in all assigned work, along with the late work. He eventually earned an A (maybe I'm just that much of a push-over). I decided not to penalize him for being late after our discussion, though I know most other students would call that unfair. After all, THEY made their deadlines. But I figured each kid's grade was his or her own. Kids who make their deadlines and are "good students" at all times usually benefit from that discipline. They don't really suffer from a teacher making an exception.
That junior boy clearly worked out his conflict with mom. It had nothing to do with me. Or maybe he just responded to one teacher paying attention to him and not shrugging him off as a failure. Likely it was a combination of things.
That was when I realized that no matter how odd the behavior, the person fouling up had reasons. I might have thought they were short-sighted or silly, but that student had far more basic conflicts in his life.
I am frustrated by anti-vaxxers and seem to be at least slightly angry about American dysfunction all the time.
I continue to hope they will turn in their late work. No questions asked.
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