I wanted to write this blog simply to address the fact that numbers are defining who people are, and that being present in your community, in your home, school, and the world is something we seem to see less of nowadays. For a place where truly anyone is being oppressed, as well as where all are being threatened with oppression, it is inevitable that as long as the education system is actively contributing to this maintenance in which the world is actually riven by numbers, standardized tests, also the anxiety of slipping grades then there can never truly be any real talk of anyone being free from this stressful weight. Let alone educating “real” people of the world. I feel that I speak on behalf of many people who feel the same way as I; there is a need to show school systems which are an industry of social service, that are educating young minds, that there are ways in which students should be #voiced and integrated, in more ways than just clubs and teams.
Activism is something that we all can be a part of but sometimes we tend to tell ourselves that it probably won’t pay off. However, with activism, change cannot be guaranteed, but at least the amazing leadership/ownership experience can. In addition, we should not be memorizing paragraphs in our textbooks like it’s our religion. We can all recite Pythagorean theorem in our sleep, but what use is that? What are we being involved in, and are we being given full rights? Then question rises: can change the fate in our sporting events, exams etc. The truth is we can, and we don’t think about how great our voice actually is. Thus, this blog is up to inspire and replace thoughts of just going to school for the purpose of the degree etc. Try to make a big or small change in your higher education institute, or even high school.
The thing is, some education systems have students involved to voice other students’ opinions, and though it is a both good and bad thing. The whole student body should be involved in decisions. Instead of a student representative, students themselves should just simply be asked. These students were simply students without a title of “representative,” etc. But, since they strived for change, they received it. They knew they were a leader on the inside. Below I have listed some people who worked towards making a change in the higher education lives.
Annie Clark and Andrea Pino are students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. What they did was initiate a great effort that would address a matter in regards to the sexual assaults in their own UNC campus. After they experienced insensitivity and lack of action from their school, it was decided that they should launch a great national movement. One of the results from this were that the U.S. Department of Education became involved more extensively when it came to campus oversight. In addition, they released 55 identities of schools that are under federal investigation.
A group of students that were at Stanford University, Fossil Free Stanford, decided to lead an effort that reached a climax regarding a decision by the university’s board of trustees. The decision was to divest the coal companies from the school’s endowment portfolio. Stanford’s portfolio of investments happens to be one of the largest ones in the country, and it was estimated to be $19 billion at a time. Since then, more than 400 higher education institutions have decided to invest in the fossil fuel industry.
Several initiatives have been actually been launched to bring change in how the NCAA, which is the governing body in relation to sports in college, does its business. One example would be where the Northwestern U football players filed a petition. They filed it to bring awareness to the fact that they should be classified as employees. They sent this petition to the National Labor Relations Board. Furthermore, they wanted lifetime medical/health insurance, and voice in athletic government. The petition was actually able to be affirmed by an initial ruling which was done by NRLB regional director, and now the matter happens to be under great review at the national level.
Again, the examples above shared a common theme: activists which are students are giving a kick to the higher education so that it would act more like a social institution, so that the right decisions are made for the people. However, isn’t that something that should be expected to be there rather than asked for? The answer to that is of course, but it is not truly happening as much as it should be. There seems to be narcissism in higher education with some institutions focusing on other things like grades rather than the students themselves. Lawrence Wittner even reported in the LA Progressive that in 15 years, American education has actually added 10x the amount of administrators rather than faculty members.
Thus due to this repetitive activist theme, hopefully you found the activist in you, and are inspired to be #voiced.