Occupy Classrooms

To those of us who work at public institutions of higher education, it is no surprise that “business models” are the letter of the day.  Over the last two decades (at least) we have witnessed a radical transformation in education; universities are overrun with “management,” disciplines are increasingly “applied,” and scholarly productivity is commonly equated to “grant dollars.”  There is nothing wrong with accountability, application, and research grants; but there is something wrong with public education.  I propose/speculate that there is a negative correlation between the growth of these phenomena and class attendance by students.  As an anthropologist, I know it is difficult to quantify attitudes, and as a professor, I have not kept the attendance records to truly correlate these variables.  Call it a hunch.  Label it propaganda, if you must.

The hunch: the heart and soul of public education (freedom to explore for the sake of learning) is being bludgeoned to death by micromanagement and societal disinterest.  The last bastions of the passion and curiosity that have been historically considered freedoms in American Society occupy smaller and smaller spaces in our lives.  Why would students value public education when society has turned its back?

So, here’s a radical idea, which may seem sarcastic, but is not.  COME TO CLASS!  I assume that at least half of the students in my classes do not know why they are in college.  Although this is a generalization, it is not baseless.  I ask students in my classes, “why are you here?”  And most of them do not come up with an answer, and less than five percent answer “to learn.”  Imagine that half of the (assumed) uninterested half simply decided, for no apparent reason other than to rebel against society, to come to class, to learn.

Rather than re-evaluating, seeking to be more entertaining, adding more PowerPoint slides, or agonizing over what instructional methods will actually “enhance learning,” I am advocating a new plan that is “student centered.” 

Rebel in the classroom.  Unabashedly take classes that do NOT fit into your degree plan, do something unapplied, dare to learn from a ‘boring’ professor, read poetry (egads!), take an extra stats course (yikes!), learn French (OMG!), paint, write prose for no good reason, philosophize ad nauseum, economize, rebel against the current trend, join the Occupy Classroom Movement!