Higher Education and the Revolutionary

[Blue Collar Bohemian]

Abbie Hoffman wrote in his book, "Steal This Book", that the only reason the revolution should ever be in a traditional organized college or university is to destroy it. What are everyone else's thoughts on so called higher education?

[Mare]

Higher education? The college and the university are systems that are much like babysitting: these systems hold the student hand, support them through meal plans and housing, until the student "gets" what they want to do in life. And once they finally do graduate (after becoming $40,000+ in debt for most students), many, many students work dead-end jobs. I know several people with Masters degrees in buisness, foreign languages, etc, and they're still working at Starbucks. I abhor "higher education". It makes me sick.

[Umoja]

Completely disagree, maybe some private universities have lost their way, but that's on an administrative level. When you enter into a college, you enter into the Ivory Tower, almost every major theory has been developed in colleges. There is no greater place for innovation. I think it's essential to being introduced to new ideas, and even Marx owes a university for his education.

It's ridiculous that American school's cost so much, but I don't think gaining and debating knowledge is ever a bad thing.

[hoopla]

Erm, I'm glad there is something to do other than work, and hope I might get a better jpb cos of it: if not, meh.

From other people's pov, I suppose itsa bit of a con that some people get more education.

[Mare]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25 2006, 11:17 PM
There is no greater place for innovation.

That innovation was only created by a few, highly intelligent, people. The masses do not contribute much to any innovation at all. There is actually a lot of data to support this. Many professors teach classes & gather their ideas from the students! Their PhD papers, ideas, concepts, conclusions, often come from the few intelligent students in their classrooms. Marx should not be used as an example for your claim. Marx, like other intelligent people, is a minority. The average Joe Blow who graduates from XYZ does nothing at all with his college degree.

[apathy maybe]

Education is the greatest thing we can offer people. All the reforms that have happened in the "west" have come about as a result of more and more people becoming educated.

We should be promoting education to everyone, so that the capitalist scum cannot lead us around.

If people can think for themselves they will not need leaders, if people can run their own lives we will not need politicians.

Education eliminates irrationality to a large degree, and tames it in most of the rest of the cases. The Catholic Church controlled the education system in Europe for centuries, and it was only after they lost control that Europe moved beyond the dark ages.

It was only after the fundamentalists gained power in the Arab world that the learning etc. there went down the tube.


Education is a great thing, we should be promoting it, not attacking the people giving it to children.

[namepending]

Originally posted by Blue Collar [email protected] 25 2006, 06:52 PM
Abbie Hoffman wrote in his book, "Steal This Book", that the only reason the revolution should ever be in a traditional organized college or university is to destroy it. What are everyone else's thoughts on so called higher education?
Marx believed formal and semi-formal education was the most important part in a revolutionary movement or in a communist society and considered it a life-long obligation

[Blue Collar Bohemian]

Originally posted by namepending+Aug 27 2006, 05:39 PM--> (namepending @ Aug 27 2006, 05:39 PM)
Blue Collar [email protected] 25 2006, 06:52 PM
Abbie Hoffman wrote in his book, "Steal This Book", that the only reason the revolution should ever be in a traditional organized college or university is to destroy it. What are everyone else's thoughts on so called higher education?
Marx believed formal and semi-formal education was the most important part in a revolutionary movement or in a communist society and considered it a life-long obligation [/b]
Education is important, but modern colleges aren't offering education. They're indoctrinating and proselytizing.

[encephalon]

While public colleges offer a CHANCE of learning, most of it is indoctrination.

Actually, if you think about it, a lot of college is geared towards sapping the working class of its most driven members, and "graduating" them into the anks of the petite bourgeoisie (or at least aligning their interests with that of the bourgeoisie).

I have learned very little in college. Most of what I've learned I've taught myself, and I suspect that will continue as long as educational institutions serve the bourgeoisie. It can, however, give some people a sense of rationality, if they pursue that course--but it is by no means a requisite of 99% of all degrees.

What "higher education" can do is empower the working class labor-wise; it is, after all, used primarily to make workers more productive and able to handle current technology on their own. In the end, I suspect higher education will fail the bourgeoisie in much the same way it fails working class kids thinking they'll enter into some kind of "institution of learning."

[JimFar]

encephalon wrote:


While public colleges offer a CHANCE of learning, most of it is indoctrination.

Certainly much of it is. Also a lot of higher education is simply glorified vocational training. And some it even involves teaching people how to think for themselves. Higher education, particularly in the US, is very much a mixed bag, depending on the course of study one pursues (one's education experiences will be quite different if one majors in philosophy as opposed to majoring in, say, hotel administration), the kind of institution one attends (Harvard and Podunk Community College are not going to offer similar educational experiences). One's class background will certainly have an impact here too. People from more afflluent backgrounds will have a better chance at attending the more elite schools and will more likely to major in less vocationally-oriented subjects such as the humanities or social sciences. while students from working class backgrounds may feel impelled to major in more vocationally-oriented subjects that will make it possible for them to earn a living fairly quickly after receiving their degrees.

[Blue Collar Bohemian]

I've always seen it this way. Elementary school is to teach the basic rules of the society, that is, obey the the people in power and their arbitrary laws without question. High School is to continue along this previous line, but in addition to teach how to show up on time and work semi-autonomously. Finally College/University is to effectively pick up the stragglers, those people who, if allowed to think independently, may prove dangerous. Through four years of totally disorienting curriculum which only amount to a series of hoops the naive individual is forced to jump through, the last strands of independent thought can be weeded out and a societally perfect individual can be crafted; one who will be able to complete complex tasks, free of supervision, that further the goals of the powers that be.

I realize this view is a bit bleak, and one might argue a simplification, but I do feel that it manages to sum up at least the American Education System. A system that is broken beyond repair and that values test scores and tax dollars over true learning, and more importantly, the desire to learn.