This Week In Joe’s Basement, episode 14: Educational Philosophy

AIR DATES: June 11, 18, 1990

Description:

A visit to Kenwood Academy, a Chicago Public high school, for a series of discussions with high school teachers.

The faculty runs the gamut, from enthusiastic young acolytes to droning, burnt-out veterans.  A memorable visit to the school’s discipline office reveals a seemingly emotionless bureaucrat, surrounded by a prodigious stack of truancy paperwork.

Production Notes:

Several of the Joe’s Basement producers had attended Kenwood, their local public high school.  They remembered it mostly as a sterile compound with silly, arbitrary rules.

Their most burning curiosity was about the dynamics of student rebellion vs. teacher discipline.  To gain the trust of the administration, though, the crew elected to first focus on the teachers.