What is University for, Anyway?
Institutes of Higher Learning are supposed to teach us critical and independent thinking skills
I feel a little out of the loop
I actually wrote this article a couple days ago. I have been camping out of town all week, so hopefully my information isn’t too long out of date. I am still in the woods, but it has taken me a while to be able to connect well enough to publish.
I recently wrote about my disappointment in the University of Winnipeg’s response to the protest encampment happening on campus. I am expanding on those thoughts here.
This is what we’ve been training for
Education — especially post-secondary education — is supposed to teach us critical thinking, reasoning, and research skills. Colleges and Universities are supposed to be institutions of higher learning. We can take classes in subjects such as conflict resolution, justice, law, rhetoric, and human rights. In my undergrad, I took a course specifically about non-violent movements of our past and present.
Why are university administrators then surprised when we use these skills to hold them to account? If they have done their jobs well, they have taught us, trained us for exactly these moments…
