“As a philosophy teacher, I think coaches have it pretty good. Coaches never struggle to convey the importance of their work. Because the work of coaches is more important than the work of teachers, coaches are allowed to speak to students passionately, realistically, and without sentimentality. Part of the reason kids take sports seriously is because coaches yell, ‘Get your head in the game, Mason! Quit messing around! What’s wrong with you?!’ when they need to.
Philosophy teachers aren’t allowed to talk like that, though. In most cases, philosophy teachers have to say encouraging piffle like, ‘So, you’ve done some interesting things in this essay, and I see some positive signs of good progress, but I still think you can make improvements in the following areas.’ Sounds real important, right? Yawn.“
-From We Need Fewer Philosophy Teachers And More Philosophy Coaches, my latest for CiRCE
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. 