"The pedagogical fiction works by representing inequality in terms of velocity: as “slowness,” “backwardness,” “delay."
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Kristin Ross’s introduction to Jacques Ranciére’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster, pg. xx.
Including “backwardness” strikes me as rather strange when thinking about “velocity,” but prods further analysis of pedagogy’s spatial dynamics. I’m thinking not only of the pontificating teacher at the front of the room or the dunce corner but also of social class and empire. For instance, one acquires an education, like property, to help raise their station in life. Despite material wealth, however, you may remain part of “backward” castes. Similarly, imperial travel across space is “going backward in time,” and indigenous people denied coevalness because they are slow of mind and their “developing world” forever behind the pacesetting West.
