“There’s a war on for your mind!” cries the conspiracy theory-esque news website, Infowars.com. And while I doubt the accuracy of its headlines predicting an imminent police state or that the U.S. government is poisoning us with fluoridated water, there may be some truth in its catchphrase.
Higher education is under attack, most recently evidenced by recurring headlines reminding us of the elephant in the classroom — budget cuts.
But while the University will soon face its darkest days, other institutions of higher — or should I say lower — learning are receiving notoriety and money throughout the country.
I’m talking, of course, about community colleges.
Only last week, President Obama encouraged a stronger partnership between two-year public colleges and prominent employers like McDonald’s and Gap. And on Monday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was giving a $20 million, multi-year grant to aid in the development of online degrees with a primary focus on community colleges.
But should we be surprised in our hour of potential financial exigency?
George Carlin, the closest thing to a prophet our world has seen since the biblical figure Amos, predicted this not long ago:
“There’s a reason education sucks … and it’s never going to get any better because the owners of this country don’t want that,” Carlin said in one of his comedic rants on education. “Forget the politicians. … You have owners. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They want obedient workers.”
I can’t say I disagree.
It’s no secret our education system is a failure, but could it really be by design?
When I use the term “education,” I’m not talking about obtaining the placebo diploma from either a community college or university, stating you’ve paid the fees and served the required time to be deemed “educated.” Rather, I’m referencing the struggle of considering and wrestling with the concepts, theories and thoughts of our forebears in an objective manner. Or, more simply, learning to think critically.
This is by no means a simple task.
It is not terribly difficult to memorize a formula and use it to solve an equation. It’s even easier to take lecture notes and regurgitate them in a Blue Book, which somehow demonstrates you’ve “learned” the material.
But the more difficult task is critically assessing the material at hand, attempting to expose its flaws and apply its strengths to any situation. This kind of learning assumes you’ve mastered the material and requires you to go beyond simple regurgitation.
The danger for those in power has always been that this kind of thinking cannot be unlearned or forgotten.
One can easily forget a formula, quote or historical date — as if they meant much to begin with. It is, however, nearly impossible to unlearn the essays one has painfully constructed about the faults of, say, Derridian deconstruction or whether speaking in tongues is genuine. This process doesn’t teach you to mimic the teacher’s thoughts — it forces you to create your own.
Thinking critically is not merely ingesting the assigned material and moving on. It is, rather, considering the material and taking it apart — recognizing its faults and using its strengths to support one’s own thesis.
Rather than trying to give this priceless gift to the masses, it seems our leaders, both local and national, would rather have a population of able-bodied workers, capable of menial tasks without the ability to question.
I can’t say I blame them.
Imagine if these pages were filled only with reiterations of what our administrators and politicians wanted. We’d be nothing more than a microphone echoing their hollow sentiments to our peers.
That’s the lesser, bush-league example. Now imagine an entire generation that doesn’t know anything except what it has been told was “true.”
The recent favoritism shown to two-year “colleges” makes it clear: Our right to receive a true education as opposed to a trade school certificate or placebo degree is indeed under attack.
In the words of Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
He might have been on to something there.
Andrew Robertson is a 23-year-old English writing and culture senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_arobertson.
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Contact Andrew Robertson at [email protected]