October 7, 2004

• Topic: Questions

  
  

  My posts always seem to get more responses when I offer questions, so let me propose one here…

  
  

  If you consumed just a little bit less each day, week, and month, (for example, if you went the whole year w/out buying a bottle of water, and instead re-filled your own water bottle, if you always brought your lunch to work and stopped eating out and eating fast-food, if you didn’t make one or two impulse buys on things that seem cool but you probably won’t use it much, like an extra t-shirt that costs $10+, or name any other of your own examples of consuming) what would be the effect on you, and what could be the possible effects on society, both bad and good?

  
  

  Here’s my thoughts.  I’m working in the campus bookstore, and people buy things without thinking twice about it.  $50 for a Wash U. sweatshirt.  $10 for a mug.  $2 for a presidential button.  Sure, most of these are momento kinds of things.  But I realize how different life is for those with money.  So much money, that they don’t worry much about how they spend.  I’m not poor.  I’ve lived comfortably my own life.  But, I’ve become aware somewhat that the problems in this world are largely due to the difference between the have’s, and the have-nots.  And, I don’t blame the have’s.  I just realize that those who have, usually are un-aware that there are have-nots in this world. 

  
  

  Part of my thoughts on education (and i’ll be honest, by the time i’m 40+, i hope to be running some sort of school) are that you need to expose people to things they don’t come across in their normal walks of life.  In my school, everyone would have pleanty of exposure to the have-nots.  And i wouldn’t have to tell the have’s how to live, or what to do.  Most people figure it out themselves.  They realize how lucky they are.  They realize that the poor don’t do well in school, not because of who they are, but largely because they’re poor.  They realize that the poor don’t commit crime because of the people they are, but largely because they don’t have what the have’s have.  They realize that the poor don’t fight in wars to defend our country, necessarily, but they do it because they need to.

  
  

  I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 once again yesturday, and for those who haven’t seen it, you should.  And the reason you should, is because the movie isn’t all about why Bush shouldn’t be Pres.  The movie is about exposing people to things in life they won’t normally see.  When Moore films a man in Flint, Michigan, he points to the run-down houses, and says, “Mr. Bush, here’s the terrorism, right here.”  They show a scene where the army recruiters skip right by the rich mall, and go to “the other mall.”  We don’t understand the problems of poverty in this country, I don’t understand the problems, but I know that there are problems, and we can do better in our educational systems to expose people to the problems of poverty.

  
  

  My project, which I lay out in my book, College Daze, is not necessarily to establish the causes of societies problems.  The book is primarily about how we can solve just about every problem in society.  How do we fix the problems of poverty?  Well…i’ve laid out part of it already.  How do we fix the problems of over-consumption?  We make it an issue to talk about in our schools. 

  
  

  The math, science, english, and history that we study are outdated.  Their original purposes were for some forgotten reasons.  Actually, in colonial times, the reason for schooling on one level was to “civilize” Native Americans, as well as to break the spirits of children so they could be disciplines.

  
  

  What is school for today?  Nobody is asking that question in a serious manner?  School is the most important issue, because it effects every single person, and it effects them till they’re basically 22 years old.  I’ll tell you what school isn’t for.  Right now, it’s not for helping kids to understand politics.  It’s not for helping kids to develop as people, or anything besides students.  It’s not for helping kids to understand the problems in the world.  My mom just retired as a math teacher.  I love her for what she did.  She worked so I could live, and be who I am today.  But there’s no question in my mind that students don’t need to learn math in the way that we keep telling students, “you need to learn this math.” The same goes for many other subjects.  I’m not asking to do away w/ the traditional curriculum.  But, we cannot have students learning academic subjects at the expense of being guided to understand the world we live in. 

  
  

  I met w/ a Professor in the German dept. yesturday, an incredible guy.  We spoke for about 90min. (another boost for me to keep fighting the good fight), and his main concern was that students who graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, the #11 ranked school in the country, the school with a $1.5billion endowment, the school that’s hosting the Presidential Debate tom. night, is producing students who don’t read the New York Times, and aren’t able to analyze it.  “That’s frightening” he said.  Yes, there are many faculty who recognize the problems.

  
  

  OK…time to go watch CNN crossfire in the quad.  Look for me on tv, i’m wearing a “Free Mandela” t-shirt. 

  • 3:58 pm
  • 3 Comments