Capitalism delegates familial discipline to overburdened teachers.

Evidence

Teachers are now put under intolerable pressure to mediate between the post-literate subjectivity of the late capitalist consumer and the demands of the disciplinary regime (to pass examinations etc). This is one way in which education, far from being in some ivory tower safely inured from the ‘real world’, is the engine room of the reproduction of social reality, directly confronting the inconsistencies of the capitalist social field. Teachers are caught between being facilitator-entertainers and disciplinarian-authoritarians. Teachers want to help students to pass the exams; they want us to be authority figures who tell them what to do. Teachers being interpellated by students as authority figures exacerbates the ‘boredom’ problem, since isn’t anything that comes from the place of authority a priori boring? Ironically, the role of disciplinarian is demanded of educators more than ever at precisely the time when disciplinary structures are breaking down in institutions. With families buckling under the pressure of a capitalism which requires both parents to work, teachers are now increasingly required to act as surrogate parents, instilling the most basic behavioral protocols in students and providing pastoral and emotional support for teenagers who are in some cases only minimally socialized. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 55

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the two-worker household as the hidden driver behind the teacher crisis — how capitalism externalizes child-rearing costs onto schools then blames teachers for failing.
• XREF: connects to: Teachers must enforce discipline just as disciplinary institutions collapse under capitalism — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 55; Capitalism’s reproduction requires family, education, and media apparatuses; Self-disciplined, freedom-granting educational systems breed procrastination and teacher overload (+3 more)

Related

• Teachers must enforce discipline just as disciplinary institutions collapse under capitalism (similarity 0.89)

Broader Connections

• Teachers must enforce discipline just as disciplinary institutions collapse under capitalism #corroborates (0.92) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 55
• Education shifts from imposed discipline to demanded self-discipline #expands (0.85)
• Reproducing capitalism requires family, schools, church, and media, not just production #corroborates (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909
• Self-disciplined, freedom-granting educational systems breed procrastination and teacher overload #expands (0.82)
• Capitalism’s reproduction requires family, education, and media apparatuses #corroborates (0.78)
• Industrialized education systems function as instruments of social control that dehumanize students #expands (0.75) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 283