Universal Socialism
Rabble — What does a university do for you?
I'm a college drop out. I spent two years at Hampshire College then dropped out, started a company a few miles from campus and generally stayed around for a couple more years. Now Hampshire is a bit alternative, but it still mostly follows the structures, institutions, traditions of european academic tradition which has been in place for centuries.
I've also been a product of / advocate for alternative education methods. In the US the private education system, prep schools, were created to construct an upper class who are raised to govern. The public school system in the US was build to tame the poor and working class immigrant population. It was build specifically to make them good subservient workers who understood their place and the practice of reasonable 'citizenship'. The system of bureaucratized state controlled educational institutions was fought, at times through armed insurrection, but after a few decades of struggle in the 19th century the public education system was in place.
The university system was originally constructed exclusively for the upper class. The graduates of public institutions were not meant to attend universities. In the 20th century there were a number of reforms to the US university system including the GI bill, and the development of black and native american universities. These extended university franchise to a segment of the middle classes. Even today only 28% of people in the USA have a university degree. But a big shift did happen in the place of the university. In the Seattle general strike of 1919 it was university students who worked with the police to break the strike. 50 years later it was students around the world who co-lead uprisings with striking workers from Montevideo to Paris.
The University has become the primary path through which working class people in much of the world are able to achieve 'class mobility' and become members of the professional class. It has also played a critical role and democratizing information, providing access to an intellectually informed critical view of society and the sciences. The university is a space where dissident ideology is often formed and maintained before it spreads in to the larger society. In the US it also acts to form and shape social relationships for the class of people who attend. The university experience is what forms the perspective, social networks, and life path for many who attend.
Today i'm surprised at how the people i knew at college are people i run in to later. Now they might not have been the people i directly hung out with, but people i knew in college. Now hampshire is great if you want connections in the activism world. There are a fair number of folks who are also doing tech activism, indymedia, and straight technology work. I've also run in to people i knew who went to Amherst, a place i never hung out very much at, but managed to make connections anyway.
Since i spent half of my university experience not technically being a student, i've spent a lot of time thinking about the university. First the university in the US is incredibly expensive. Because i knew how things worked, i still attended talks, audited classes, and played on Hampshire's ultimate frisbee team. So what is the difference between my being a 'real student' and the 'unofficial student' that i became. One was the latter was much cheaper. I didn't get an credit, paperwork, grades, or other benefits of being enrolled. But in terms of the social and intellectual world, i pretty much had the same experience of any student who was enrolled full time.
Recently a number of universities have started offering their courses online for free including the reading material and podcasts of the lectures. This means that enterprising students can get the static intellectual content of the courses from any computer on the net. In terms of spreading knowledge, this is a great thing. It lets people who are trapped behind the bars of international borders and visa requirements can escape.
But there is something fundamentally lacking in the online simulation of the university. I had a friend who was taking an online law degree. She quit because nobody was interested in the discussion. It is that discursive space, the debate and discussion, the intellectual searching, which doesn't get replicated. That is, to me the thing which the university provides. It does it almost as well for people who squat the educational system as those who pay their way through. Unfortunately that discussion doesn't happen for people who just experience the course work separated from the campus environment.
Maybe if i'm still inspired i'll address the coercive hierarchy of academia which drives academic work down dead ends. It's a large part of which drove me to leave.
November 23, 2005 Anarchoblogs
I'm a college drop out. I spent two years at Hampshire College then dropped out, started a company a few miles from campus and generally stayed around for a couple more years. Now Hampshire is a bit alternative, but it still mostly follows the structures, institutions, traditions of european academic tradition which has been in place for centuries.
I've also been a product of / advocate for alternative education methods. In the US the private education system, prep schools, were created to construct an upper class who are raised to govern. The public school system in the US was build to tame the poor and working class immigrant population. It was build specifically to make them good subservient workers who understood their place and the practice of reasonable 'citizenship'. The system of bureaucratized state controlled educational institutions was fought, at times through armed insurrection, but after a few decades of struggle in the 19th century the public education system was in place.
The university system was originally constructed exclusively for the upper class. The graduates of public institutions were not meant to attend universities. In the 20th century there were a number of reforms to the US university system including the GI bill, and the development of black and native american universities. These extended university franchise to a segment of the middle classes. Even today only 28% of people in the USA have a university degree. But a big shift did happen in the place of the university. In the Seattle general strike of 1919 it was university students who worked with the police to break the strike. 50 years later it was students around the world who co-lead uprisings with striking workers from Montevideo to Paris.
The University has become the primary path through which working class people in much of the world are able to achieve 'class mobility' and become members of the professional class. It has also played a critical role and democratizing information, providing access to an intellectually informed critical view of society and the sciences. The university is a space where dissident ideology is often formed and maintained before it spreads in to the larger society. In the US it also acts to form and shape social relationships for the class of people who attend. The university experience is what forms the perspective, social networks, and life path for many who attend.
Today i'm surprised at how the people i knew at college are people i run in to later. Now they might not have been the people i directly hung out with, but people i knew in college. Now hampshire is great if you want connections in the activism world. There are a fair number of folks who are also doing tech activism, indymedia, and straight technology work. I've also run in to people i knew who went to Amherst, a place i never hung out very much at, but managed to make connections anyway.
Since i spent half of my university experience not technically being a student, i've spent a lot of time thinking about the university. First the university in the US is incredibly expensive. Because i knew how things worked, i still attended talks, audited classes, and played on Hampshire's ultimate frisbee team. So what is the difference between my being a 'real student' and the 'unofficial student' that i became. One was the latter was much cheaper. I didn't get an credit, paperwork, grades, or other benefits of being enrolled. But in terms of the social and intellectual world, i pretty much had the same experience of any student who was enrolled full time.
Recently a number of universities have started offering their courses online for free including the reading material and podcasts of the lectures. This means that enterprising students can get the static intellectual content of the courses from any computer on the net. In terms of spreading knowledge, this is a great thing. It lets people who are trapped behind the bars of international borders and visa requirements can escape.
But there is something fundamentally lacking in the online simulation of the university. I had a friend who was taking an online law degree. She quit because nobody was interested in the discussion. It is that discursive space, the debate and discussion, the intellectual searching, which doesn't get replicated. That is, to me the thing which the university provides. It does it almost as well for people who squat the educational system as those who pay their way through. Unfortunately that discussion doesn't happen for people who just experience the course work separated from the campus environment.
Maybe if i'm still inspired i'll address the coercive hierarchy of academia which drives academic work down dead ends. It's a large part of which drove me to leave.
November 23, 2005 Anarchoblogs
posted by professor rat at 4:15 AM
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