i was going to leave this as a guestbook entry, but it started to get long, and i thought it would make a better diary entry.
from resistivity:
"I am not sure if you are into it, but you might want to check out some of the more "alternative ed" schools. If not to go there, then maybe because I think you would see some of your ideas about education embodied in the way they do things. New College http://www.ncf.edu, Oberlin http://www.oberlin.edu, Reed http://www.reed.edu are the ones that first come to mind. I agree-- the formal education may not be something you really need. It does help with jobs etc. (I know you know that). What I found is that it stretched my mind and taught me how to think in different ways, helped me hone my skills of negotiation and argument, and exposed me to people I may not have met otherwise."
i've actually had a friend go to oberlin, and one to reed, and for the most part they seemed pretty happy. god knows their classes were probably more interesting than mine. but the problem i have with "alternative" education isn't so much with the education, it's with the fact that they're so smug in their alternativeness. they're breeding grounds for the ultra hip. the people who only listen to a band if it's known by not more than three other people. the type of people, in short, who wear mesh trucker caps.
at the same time, i feel as though i could've gone to many many colleges (albeit not the one i picked) and had a decent education. the main reason i had trouble in college was that i picked the wrong one. this has more to do with the way my highschool was than with the state of colleges. i was in the top 20% of my class. i had decent SAT scores (outstanding verbal). i told them i wanted to go to SSU. did they say "i think you can do better"? nope. they said, "oh, you'll get in there, no problem."
here are some of the things that public education didn't teach me (and should have), but i picked up eventually:
*how to stand up for myself.
*confidence in my own opinions (school actually beat this out of me pretty early on, and i'm still getting it back)
*how to think critically and argue rationally (i had to wait until philosophy in freshman year of college. i was so relieved to have learned something of value that for a while i changed my major.
i internalized so much of the things that school told me. the more i think about it, the more it seemed to me that i didn't consciously make the choice to be a "good girl." it's more as though i didn't realize i had a choice. i didn't have the confidence to rebel outwardly, however much i didn't believe in the system and really wanted to tell it to go fuck itself. my idea of rebellion was to flagrantly read jd salinger novels in algebra class.
am i saying that i should've been shaving my head and getting drunk on weekends? i really don't know. i think i'm saying that i wish i'd known there were alternatives. and then again, i think it's more complicated than that.
it's always complicated, right?
beatpoetgrrl
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