Higher Ed Under Capitalism

When metaphor invades decolonization, it kills the v ery possibility of decolonization; it recenters whiteness, it resettles theory, it extends innocence to the settler, it entertains a settler future. Decolonize (a verb) and decolonization (a noun) cannot easily be grafted onto pre -existing discourses/frame works, even if they are critical, even ... See more

so we might say that the most important thing one can acquire in college is a well-functioning bullshit meter. 11 It’s a technology that will never become obsolete.

And an American college is only true to itself when it opens its doors to all—rich, middling, and poor—who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them. If we are serious about democracy, that means everyone.

I think of a comparably personal comment I once heard my colleague Judith Shapiro, former provost of Bryn Mawr and then president of Barnard, make to a group of young people about what they should expect from college: “You want the inside of your head to be an interesting place to spend the rest of your life.”

We rarely hear talk about preparing them for a life-time of making meaningful decisions. We don’t talk about how to prepare them for a world in which adults don’t always have the answers. We don’t talk about preparing them for a world where sometimes disobedience is the right choice, and just because something has ‘always been done like this’ doesn... See more