By Bess Markel
“Better red than dead” — that was the mentality of many teachers when James Robert, the Pioneer philosophy teacher more commonly known as J.R, was a high school student.
As high school students, we often feel that our teachers cannot relate to us; however, we forget that they were once high school students, too.
While Robert was in high school during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, he still very vividly remembers the fear and paranoia around the Red Scare, and believes that those experiences have had a lasting impact on his life.
When Robert started high school in 1969, he said he felt exposed to the Cold War between the United States and the USSR through classes and teachers in ways that he had not been before high school.
“I took a Russian studies class my freshman year, which was pretty radical in 1969 to have a Soviet Studies class. I remember [my teacher] sitting in the front of the room, and this was back when you could smoke in schools, and he had his feet up on the desk and he was smoking a pipe. He began the first day of class, by blowing smoke out into the room and going: ‘So I just have one question for you, would you rather be red or dead?’ which was the big question back then,” recalls Robert.
While this was a major question during the ‘60s, Robert was surprised to see how seriously everyone was taking it. This question, along with doing nuclear fall out drills in the hallways, largely contributed to shaping his understanding of the political events unfolding around him.
“That [question my teacher asked] was a big instigator in waking me up to political consciousness, because that was a powerful moment,” says Robert. “The other big moment I had was when I was in 10th grade biology class, and I was pretty radical back then, and my biology teacher was a pretty conservative man. I don’t remember what instigated it, but he had a little side room, and I remember him sort of getting me against the wall and lifting me up off the wall, he was so angry at me. He was screaming in my face ‘I know you’re a communist! Just admit that you’re a communist!’ and I was like ‘I’m not going to admit that I’m a communist.’”
While most would be threatened by a teacher so utterly terrifying, Robert that being threatened by a teacher only encouraged him.
“I realized how passionate people were about this Red Scare and the whole politics going from there and how the whole world was divided into red or not red. It felt kind of good to be accused of being a communist actually, so that actually radicalized me a little bit more.”
The moment felt good, he said, because in high school he thought it was nice to receive attention for being unique, even if that attention was negative. “It felt good to be recognized as different. In 10th grade you want to be different,” he said.
Still, Robert believes the majority of his defining moments happened in college, and that the biggest piece of advice he would give to high school students is that it is okay to not know what one wants to do while still a teenager.
“It’s the rare exception [to find someone] who knows what they want to do at that age because people aren’t even formed yet; the brain isn’t done forming until you are 25, and my whole thing is that we do this all wrong. We give kids a menu of options, and maybe a rudimentary physiological test, and then they pick from the menu of what they think they want to do, and what I’m trying to get my seniors to do is go inside themselves and seek out what it is they long for, and find out what it is they want most in life, and then define a need out in a world that they can match that longing to, and that’s your calling.”
As high school students, we often feel that our teachers cannot relate to us; however, we forget that they were once high school students, too.
While Robert was in high school during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, he still very vividly remembers the fear and paranoia around the Red Scare, and believes that those experiences have had a lasting impact on his life.
When Robert started high school in 1969, he said he felt exposed to the Cold War between the United States and the USSR through classes and teachers in ways that he had not been before high school.
“I took a Russian studies class my freshman year, which was pretty radical in 1969 to have a Soviet Studies class. I remember [my teacher] sitting in the front of the room, and this was back when you could smoke in schools, and he had his feet up on the desk and he was smoking a pipe. He began the first day of class, by blowing smoke out into the room and going: ‘So I just have one question for you, would you rather be red or dead?’ which was the big question back then,” recalls Robert.
While this was a major question during the ‘60s, Robert was surprised to see how seriously everyone was taking it. This question, along with doing nuclear fall out drills in the hallways, largely contributed to shaping his understanding of the political events unfolding around him.
“That [question my teacher asked] was a big instigator in waking me up to political consciousness, because that was a powerful moment,” says Robert. “The other big moment I had was when I was in 10th grade biology class, and I was pretty radical back then, and my biology teacher was a pretty conservative man. I don’t remember what instigated it, but he had a little side room, and I remember him sort of getting me against the wall and lifting me up off the wall, he was so angry at me. He was screaming in my face ‘I know you’re a communist! Just admit that you’re a communist!’ and I was like ‘I’m not going to admit that I’m a communist.’”
While most would be threatened by a teacher so utterly terrifying, Robert that being threatened by a teacher only encouraged him.
“I realized how passionate people were about this Red Scare and the whole politics going from there and how the whole world was divided into red or not red. It felt kind of good to be accused of being a communist actually, so that actually radicalized me a little bit more.”
The moment felt good, he said, because in high school he thought it was nice to receive attention for being unique, even if that attention was negative. “It felt good to be recognized as different. In 10th grade you want to be different,” he said.
Still, Robert believes the majority of his defining moments happened in college, and that the biggest piece of advice he would give to high school students is that it is okay to not know what one wants to do while still a teenager.
“It’s the rare exception [to find someone] who knows what they want to do at that age because people aren’t even formed yet; the brain isn’t done forming until you are 25, and my whole thing is that we do this all wrong. We give kids a menu of options, and maybe a rudimentary physiological test, and then they pick from the menu of what they think they want to do, and what I’m trying to get my seniors to do is go inside themselves and seek out what it is they long for, and find out what it is they want most in life, and then define a need out in a world that they can match that longing to, and that’s your calling.”