What is education, what does it look like and what is the
motivation behind education in today’s cultures and societies? I ask this question in the midst of a rapidly
changing environment where previous educational models are no longer considered
credible. I suggest, with this post,
that education has become, more than ever, a form of conforming, a tool of
information for jobs and careers that are fast becoming a ploy to satisfy the
quivering capitalist soul. It must be
considered pseudo-education as it is not education in the truest sense but
merely a ploy to maintain some form of state emotional-economic cohesion. This is not a new observation yet a reality
of our present state that bears more visitation.
While culture and society present us with different
contextualities I suggest that the aforementioned questions remain prescient. So where did we lose education or does it
just look different with different outcomes?
Have we become so technologically advanced that we have become uprooted
from our humanity, and with that education?
Simone Weil approaches these questions in her book The Need for Roots. Weil’s
thoughts are more than ever compelling, as these questions are significant in
the midst of culture and societal shifts.
I suppose a question that would further trouble the waters would be,
“Where is education in the midst of this global tectonic shift in culture and
society.” The current environment
requires a complete reconceptualization of education down to its meaning and
the implications to the outcomes.
I suggest here that this reconception of education calls for
courage not grounded in the present capitalist product/profit oriented mindset
but grounded in a quest for holistic oriented thought. The goal of education must be the development
and maturing of the human being beyond norms of race economics, and
sectarianism. I suggest here that education should be that
tool which unleashes the radical passion embodied in the student. Education then must have a trajectory that
is holistic in its approach and its outcomes.
If we want education in the truest sense there must be an overhaul of
the foundation and a delinking, if you will, from notions of corporate and
government colonization. I make this statement as I think of
corporations willing to support the educational institution through programs that,
I suggest, ultimately lead to the student working for them, see, (Los Angeles Schools to Seek Sponsors, December 16, 2010).
Look I am all for making a living and surviving yet education
must not be a corporate servant but a free agent for the benefit of all
students.
In Need for Roots, Simone Weil embodies the guiding
principle for this different educational framework. Education, once again, as in the old school
house, not to romanticize, must, once again becomes a labor of love. I think there must be a question of modeling. Who or what is education modeled after? Who or what is teaching modeled after? These questions must be considered core
questions to engage. These questions,
debated in the context of attention, for in the final analysis education begins
and ends with the attention, yes, giving the student, as the embodiment of
cosmic passion attention.
Reflecting on the reason for this post, unsafe schools, low
morale, no child left behind, and race to the top, all that seemingly embody a trajectory
of a corporate merger between what is considered education and the
corporation. I long for time when
schools we actually educate once again.
