A student for a
democratic society
My
name is Michael
Merriweather. I'm Michigan Green party candidate for Wayne State
University Board of Governors. I'm also a student at Wayne where I
major in Media Arts & Studies. I'm a political activist, including
membership in SDS, MECAWI, the Michigan Green Party and volunteer work
with Free Detroit. Last year I had the opportunity to study abroad in
Brazil. While away and upon returning from my trip, I found that I saw
myself, my country and its history in a new and critical light. I
discovered a hunger for knowledge of the past, both the history of my
country and as an African-American, a history of my origins beyond this
country. This journey has led me to believe that we need a radical
change in the way we think about and value education in our country
Understanding the
power of knowledge
We need a
transformation in how we think about education. Knowledge isn't the
ability to pass a test. It's the ability to know why and understand how
things happen. Everything from: the movement of the planets, the
workings of a computer, the pleasures of art, our human rights, to our
system of government and economy is knowledge and we need to know and
understand it. When valued this way, knowledge gives us the power to
act meaningfully in our world. To act with the goal and ability to
change it and our relation to each other in it. As long as education,
learning and studying is treated culturally as a way stop before a
boring job, an alternative to entertainment, not real work or something
for know it alls instead of the very thing that allows us to live and
act as human beings you can't expect people to be enthusiastic about
it. To give an example of one small solution, the curriculum in history
courses could be changed from "pageantry" textbooks to primary and
secondary source documents that provide an honest view of history from
those who lived it or study it seriously, a focus on women, minorities
and working class people etc. whose social struggles provide inspiring
models for social changes in the present, giving students a much better
idea of how the world works and hopefully making them interested in
working to change it.
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