POLITICS: Libspill, ego's and education... where does higher education fall?

Students might be excused for thinking that higher education reforms are obsolete like [Prime Minister Tony] Abbott and the LNP are at the next election. While #libspill came to a conclusion with the Liberal Party standing behind the current Prime Minister, albeit narrowly, the alternative is not much better.

The question students, activists and wider community need to answer is how the failed liberal spill, education reforms and ego's in our politicians impact our national education system.

I ask this question because one of the biggest problems our education system faces isn't an economic crisis, but a social crisis. The concerns of rigidity need addressing to allow humans do what they do best, learn. Unfortunately it is the current bureaucratic nonsense and ravenous fascination on testing students with literacy, numeracy and compliance does more damage than good.

For me growing up, education was less about learning and more closely related to verbal diarrhea that I was supposed to be thankful for, which my parents then paid for the privilege, and finally had to self-excite myself every morning with a pair of defibrillators to my chest. If this was the situation of another industry, say the hospitality industry, all business that served this material would be shut down pending a royal inquiry. 

So while it's great that we call out the LNP for it's neoliberal assault on students, we shouldn't forget there is still a long way to go. Luckily we are not alone, and the more that speak up and create a voice the more we can change. There are three types of people in this world, those that are immovable, those that are moveable and those that move. With enough people moving we can create a movement and for the best of teachers and students that's what we need to fix our deflating education system.

I vividly remember when I was in grade 8 my Religious Education teacher told the class we had to give a talk for our next assignment. At this stage I began to resent talking because most of the time it was about MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet, or a book I hadn't finished reading. This talk however was different, it was different because we were given the option to chose a song, movie, book or poem. Noticing 'The Matrix' was one of the options this was an obvious choice. Still to this day I remember my teachers name, studying the philosophical meaning behind the movie till early hours, going way over time and that my classmate absolutely screwed up playing the movie during my speech, which at that time was on a VHS (ahh the good old days before TPB). It is sad some of my greatest educational experiences occurred outside of an education system.

Given the opportunity, human beings think creatively, and this should be reflected in our education system by allowing students to be naturally creative and take risk. Sadly though, risk and creativity are some qualities seriously lacking in our political system. While political parties slip pills named 'ego trips' to decide who should be team leader, they fail to bring foresight into our education system, our economy, and our society.

Unfortunately we cannot indulge in the idea that we can somehow reform our way out of this education blunder. Teachers and politicians have been doing that for years, and to be blunt it hasn't worked. That's not to say that the system is broken, but that it is outdated, which is reflected directly in our education system (through online education) and more generally in society with this yearning for less hierarchy and more say in our workplaces, in lecture halls and in Canberra.

What I want to know is where are the universities that inspire students? On top of that, where are the politicians who inspire change and lead by example? I find it amazing we would ever have someone that hasn't taught in a classroom, managed teachers, let alone failed in passing education reform as the education minister. In the age of technology and the internet, this baffles me. When was the last time you heard a friend say I am working in job 'x' because my teacher or lecturer inspired me? Most of the people I know either don't like their job, or don't have a job.

I think it's important to note though that this isn't the teachers fault. After all, you can not blame an artist if he is given no tools. What is missing from the higher education discussion is the fundamental purpose of an education system. What should it achieve? Is it to generate the most PhD students, or is it to allow all students the best opportunity to truly and honestly succeed in their field of interest? If that's the case how is this achieved? The answer is relatively simple and most of us do it daily. It's called working in a team. Fortunately it is what makes the human race so uniquely different to all other animals. Our ability to learn, to pass information along and help others learn with us.

To accomplish this our politicians need to take the responsibility of our education system seriously. We need to look at education, not as an industrial plant, but as a community where everyone's opinion is important, where everyone can express themselves, where failure and critical thinking is all part of the learning process. For this to happen the hierarchical nature of our education system must be removed and an equal and free system created for all citizens.

A friend of mine once showed me a video of this educationalist named Sir Ken Robinson. Since that day it was like a light turned on inside of me, like as though my entire schooling life wasn't wasted, because I felt like as though I have at least contributed to the pool of students that are described as disengaged with education. It shouldn't, and it doesn't have to be this way.

In a 2006 TED talk, he gave a talk that still to this day inspires me. He ends that speech with a poem and I intend to end my article with his response.



"I wanted to read you a very quick poem from W.B. Yates"...

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

"And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet, and we should tread softly."