Wednesday 25 March 2015

The Drowning of Hope in the University


Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Strange things going on around me at the moment. I'm very mindful that there is a difference between stating what matters and getting caught up in 'passionate intensity'. Yeats is right: he merely states what matters.

So what matters?

Learning is fundamentally about overcoming fear. It doesn't make any difference if you are a 3-year old on a climbing frame, or an academic in an oppressive institution. Ironically and tragically the education system is riven with fear and a bureaucratic concern for things that don't matter.  There is an attempt to separate learning from politics in the interests of managerial elites. This is basically an assault on hope. It is doomed to failure. I hope.

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