I just watched a You Tube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf1wFC2ul7M) of Derrick Jensen talking about education. My heart was pounding as I listened to him "bash education" (his words, not mine). Why are his words so alive for me?
First, my son has been talking a lot about how alienating he finds the educational process to be as a college student. Jensen hits the nail on the head when he suggests that the purpose of education is to separate us from ourselves, to turn us into good little workers; to break our will. I'm afraid for my son who is struggling so hard against this indoctrination. What happens to people who refuse to comply? Will he ever be employable? Will he end up destitute and homeless?
I also recognize that my son's struggles correspond to some degree to my own. In my own life, I am on the precipice of change, high on a cliff, miles from safety, my toes curled like talons clutching the edge. I am afraid to look down. I know that it is time to step off. Will I fall to my death or fly? For me, that's the way it feels to be graduating with a "terminal degree" (I love that term - so apropos).
Listening to Jensen today, I came to realize that I spent 11 years in college and never learned to quell the questions and critiques of 'the system'. As a result, there is no place for me within the 'the system'. What will become of me? Will I ever be employable? Will I end up destitute and homeless?
Damn you, Derrick Jensen. Now what?
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