For me, it was mainly the philosophy and politics teachers. Boy oh fucking boy, for some reason, every single one of my philosopy and PolSci teachers were… interesting personalities to say the least. It was our philosophy teacher who introduced us to the Labor Theory of Value, oddly enough, and the issue of economic inequality. And as for the PolSci-Side, two teachers stand out: One grew up in the GDR and was very, very nostalgic about it (with some fair criticisms, especially concerning the Stasi), and the second, and final one in my case, was an irony-poisoned super-leftist with a gigantic disdain for the rich, the state and capitalism.
In the mid 2000s I was in high school and Che shirts were all the rage. My history teacher complained about it and told us that if we talked to any Cubans in America they wouldn’t be happy to see Che on a shirt. He then showed us a bunch of movies about the Cuban revolution and I remember him getting mad when most of the students cried when Che died in one of the movies. Fuck that teacher.
I remember really rooting for the reds when we learned about the Finnish civil war in school. That’s about it.
I had to read an excerpt of The Jungle in school. I ended up getting the whole book. Having family in a union helped.
