Education, Pt. I

After grading my classes essays, and realizing that a lot of the sentence construction techniques and other formats that I taught them were not being used, I huffed and puffed to class the following session. I was enraged by the fact that after weeks of reviewing the same concepts and subject-matter that they just were not getting it.

That Thursday morning with a look of serious disdain on my face, and anger mixed with melancholy in my voice, I instructed them to write a sentence on their view or definition of "education".

At first, I got strange, curious looks as if asking: "What's Mr. Williams up to, now?" After the whisperings and musings died down, they got to work.

The session ended and I collected their paragraphs. That day, heading home on my bus, I took the paragraphs out of my messenger bag and started reading. Some gave dictionary definitions, others mentioned enlightenment and blah, blah, blah. There was one, however, which stood out. This particular student wrote the following:

"Education, to me, is the consumption of information to be used later in a sometimes different way than how it was consumed."

At the time, I did not understand why this particular definition stood out above the others, but after attending a book fair later that week, it was to become clear.

(to be continued)

Paris Burning, Paris Burning

The noxious stench of imperialism, racism, and classism rose above the Parisian sky line on October 27 and beyond, tickling the noses of those, who for too long, have ignored the wisdom of history.

I suppose it is part of the human psyche to wait until something goes awry before we try to ammend it, thus ignoring the not-so hidden lessons that history have supposedly taught us. The world witnessed this truth with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the attacks on September 11 and even the riots in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.

Humanity ignoring history is not what is key, however. What is quite disheartening for me is the perpetual blaming of the victim and how laxed society has become in the fight against racism and classism.

The victims in the Parisian riots aren't only those who lost cars and who had a few windows of their businesses bashed in. The obvious victims are the two youngsters and others who lost their lives during and leading up to the violence. However, the other real victims here are, mostly, muslim youth who feel disenfranchised, mis- or underrepresented, even, lost. Another group of victims is the current generation of non-muslim youth, who have been cheated by their predecessors or their ancestors because these youth are having to deal with, though from a different vantage point, the scorge and rotten stench of imperialism and racism. Even though, for the most part, they do not share those views with their grandparents and the parents of their grandparents who set up and perpetuated this evil system. The vestiges of which still haunt us today.

Should we blame the dead? Perhaps not, since they are gone, and there's nothing we can do about that. However, we can, at least, learn from their mistakes. We can, at least, educate ourselves about this evil past to ensure that it does not become our present, and worse yet, our future.

My fear is that we have learned nothing from our history. My fear is that we have become laxed and complacent, thinking that, "Hey, this is a new millienium; people don't think 'like that' anymore."

What happened in Paris and in other cities around the world should teach us a harsh lesson that bringing humanity together into a circle of acceptance, fairness, openness and respect for each other takes hard work, vigilance and dedication.

It's time, then, to out the flames that produce the stench of hate and racism, replacing it with the sweet-smelling savor of love, respect for humanity and a passion for the betterment of life for all.