The Seeds of a New University: Breaking Free From The Pedagogical Dogma That Confines Young Minds

The University

When I was a growing child, when my mind was still developing and struggling to make sense of the world around me, I thought I understood what that meant; I thought I understood what a University was. I thought a University was a mysterious world where young minds could grow into whatever it is they might be capable of. I thought a University was the place where I would be free to reach the limits of my capabilities.

And I knew it was a living creature.

I thought that once inside, I would learn to live with it in symbiosis. I thought we would feed off each other to create vast landscapes of novel cognitive connections. I thought we would evolve harmoniously through time towards depths of understanding otherwise inaccessible.  I thought it would let me harness all that it holds to peer into invisible worlds, to explore abstract platonic realms, and to reveal the unknown.

Like many, I stare with awe and wonder at the universe. We are matter pondering matter. We are stardust contemplating the stars.

Like many, deep within me is a source for creation, the potential to generate novelty. All that we know about the cosmos stems from the human mind.

But to achieve the enlightenment experienced by so many great thinkers that have defined the history of our species requires one thing absolutely fundamental: the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices. Freedom of the human spirit; freedom of the human mind.

After half a decade training as a Physicist at the University of Ottawa, I've learned that I am still a growing child, and that I am now struggling even more to make sense of the world around me. All my preconceptions of the University were false. All but one: the University is a living creature. It can grow, and it can change. It can evolve, and it can bifurcate. It restores itself when it is perturbed. It protects its existence when it feels threatened. 

But it is also a machine. It reacts to driving pressures, and is shaped by present forces. But most important, it contains mechanisms for control.

Control over itself, and control over the minds that accept it.

In my struggle to redeem autonomy over my education (http://www.unfamiliarfreedom.blogspot.com/ ), I've learned that the University is not where young minds go to flourish. To do so requires a kind of freedom over oneself that is quenched by the creature, that is destroyed by the machine. To receive The Degree, students must neglect that which moves them, that which holds them strongly. Passion is replaced by obedience. Internal drives are infected with external rewards and punishments. Individuals are shaped by pre-established standards. Novelty is lost.

The Physicist

The young mind that ponders. The young mind that wonders. The free spirit that questions. The free spirit that challenges.  

The lost child in need of certainty. The lost child that seeks truth.

The determined student who trusts in his teacher. The determined student who adheres to her directives.  

The confused soul that sacrifices understanding for reason. 

“Why discuss these things? It's all in here,” said a young Physicist as he pointed to the textbook. Why reflect and ponder, when we can just believe?

“Discuss it? Why? You just calculate it,”  said a young Physicist when I posed a question to him. Why venture into uncertainty, when absolute understanding is so easily achievable by delusion?

“Which theoretical framework is more fundamental? That's not a Physics question,” authoritatively stated the Professor Dr. James Harden. Think only within the artificial boundaries that we have constructed for you. Do not discuss what we all have deemed irrelevant.

“You cannot choose the questions you spend your time pondering. It's not practical,” decided Dr. Harden. Give up that which moves you. Give up that which impassions you.

“Everyone must do the same thing!” maniacally exclaimed Dr. Harden. Do not create your own path, do not build your own world; fall into formation, and hand us your mind. 

“Don't understand it, just do it,” wisely advised the Department’s Chair, Dr. Béla Joos. Do not question, and do not challenge; acquire faith, and believe the doctrine.  

“You can either adhere to the decisions we have already made for you, or you can go somewhere else,” sincerely concluded the Dean of Science Dr. Lalonde. The machine is under our control, and you are the raw material.

I am worried. What constitutes and defines a Physicist is shifting towards fixed knowledge, reliance on authority as sources of absolute truth, and artificially constructed and rigidly imposed boundaries. The learning process is being mechanized, and the individual is no longer recognized. Reality is believed expressible solely in terms of mathematical technicalities, and developing Physicists are segregated from other forms of human thought. But most important, students are prevented from venturing into unfamiliar realms and discovering new worlds. Their paths are predetermined by the power structures that govern the University. Students are digested by the creature, and processed by the machine.

Planting the Seeds

The University in a medium for the spatial and temporal flow of ideas. Inside it, novel thought patterns can emerge, or pre-established ideologies can be transmitted. The University is a magical place. The University is a dangerous place.

The program, the course, the curriculum.

These are the mechanisms that define the framework within which ideas are formed by developing minds. They are constructed with little justification, and they are imposed without challenge. The promise of The Degree, aided by the reward and punishment system of grades, sustains this unidirectional governance. They do not grow and change along with the individual; they are rigidly maintained and they are forcefully protected.

There is a time when the sacrifices required to adhere without question to the established pedagogical dogma and be integrated into society become unbearably and intolerably destructive. Consciousness must be raised over the lack of freedom experienced by students during the learning process, and seeds for a new University must be planted. But new beginnings cannot be created through gradual change that does not challenge the current paradigms or threaten the underlying structures. A more just world must be fought for.

If grades destroy creativity, then do away with them. If frequent testing obstructs learning, then refuse to be tested. If the curriculum does not take you where you want to go, then create your own, and defend it. Generate novelty, and do not seek approval. Explore and risk, and do not fear punishment. Do not regurgitate on demand; share your creations with others when the time is right.

The University is a living creature. Students must live in it and with it in symbiosis. Students must harness all that it holds to propel themselves along paths that grow and branch with time into patterns driven by their passions and internal motivations. The University is a machine. Students must control it in order to control themselves. Students must prevent it from working until they are free.

Inside the University, a seed is planted every time an individual refuses to be treated as anything but; a seed is planted every time a student takes control over their education against the enforced mandates. And it will grow so long as there is freedom from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices. It will flourish into something unpredictable, and it will join a vast network of like structures, from which will emerge a whole that is greater than anything that can exist when pedagogical dogma is allowed to poison the entire process.

© 2008 Marc Kelly; licensee (Cult)ure Magazine.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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