Here we go. In truth, one of the strongest reasons I wanted to engage you, my students, in research grounded in your lives is that I’m trying desperately to get you to care. Education has been forced into following a business model for decades. But colleges change slowly; they are large, slow institutions that cannot pivot quickly. That’s a feature, not a bug. We want colleges to be thoughtful, democratic, open. We want lots of people to be involved in decisions and shifts.
But between AI and the success of the PR campaign about how “college is a scam,” we are at long last in full-blown crisis. College is not a scam. It’s the single greatest factor in your lives that can change your material and intellectual lives. You can’t control the social class into which you were born, or your racial/ethnic/cultural identity and the ensuing discrimination that diminishes opportunity for you.
You can control your education.
You’re here at one of the top 20 community colleges in the country. Your classes are taught by highly specialized experts in the field. Everyone I know who teaches at Harper wants to change lives. We want you to care. We want you to engage in the process of transformation and challenge. We want you to value craftsmanship and effort. We do not want you to succumb to the dominant rhetoric: that grades alone matter, that a class being easy is the same as a class being good; that things like art, music, and writing are a waste of time; that “skills-only” education is the way to go. The result of these beliefs is nothing but an obedient worker who won’t challenge existing systems or hierarchies.
Think of who is being driven out of college these days, and ask yourselves who benefits from that. Think of how, ten years ago, we were closer than ever to true equity in education, and how the system kicked in to create backlash, leaving the wealthiest and most privileged to thrive at rigorous, Ivy League schools while other students bought into the lie that they are somehow victims of a “scam.”
There is alternative, and it’s about giving a damn, questioning authority, challenging existing norms. The most radical thing you can do as a student today is actively engage in true education. Reject the focus on rubrics (truly, these are made to trick you into thinking there’s an empirical system of measurement for creative work–“give students a grid and numbers so they think it’s legitimate data, not opinion”). Reject grade-mongering and extra credit for mercenary purposes. Reject the path of least resistance for its own sake. Follow your interests, passions, questions. Take chances. Upend the system.
To do that, you have to get in touch with your own voice. I want you to write original work that helps you understand yourself and the world around you. I don’t want you to think what I think. I want you to think on your own, based on actual facts and personal integrity. So what I’m trying to do now is engage you in your story. How do you connect to an essay, story, or poem? How can you ground that in peer-reviewed, solid information? I want you to write original work because you alone can offer insight into yourself and your story.
I still care passionately about what I do because I am still learning. Curiosity is a wonderful thing, a joy that carries people through, even when our material lives are hard. And the most radical, rebellious, punk thing I can do is continue to believe that the weapons of the mind are how we change the world.