Education shouldn't be political and it didn't used to be overtly so.

Tl;dr - here’s what’s happened to American education in the last 50 years or so … and what outcomes that’s produced. The only good news is that we’re waking up to it:

Why [American] Colleges are Becoming Cults

Public education and me … phew we have a long drawn out history of struggle between us.

I don’t even feel like typing out the whole story here, maybe on a video where someone is asking me questions at some point.

Suffice it to say, I was never impressed with it. Never particularly challenged by it.

Had a small handful of fantastic teachers and professors (4 come to mind if I try to imagine who would make that list - my 1st grade teacher, my 5/6th grade teacher, my HS sculpture teacher and my Animal Behavior professor in college) …

The rest of the 15 years, including 2 in college … are not memorable or not worth remembering. Oh wait, there was a Geometry teacher in HS and a biology teacher in middle school (we called it Junior HS) - they make the list too.

Anyway - mostly I was bored and it felt like I was being babysat. Got to college. Had a full-ride “minority student” scholarship. Gave them that shit back after 2 years.

Mostly at the time, I was pissed realizing that there was no way to accelerate “getting out” and that I could have racked up credits to do so at a different school.

I also had a boyfriend back in NYC and traveling back and forth to the city a couple times a month got old.

But also, the whole two years I was on display (and not towing the party line) due to this “minority student” thing I’d skated in on. I don’t remember it being something I’d applied for - though I’m not sure, when you’re applying to colleges you tick all the boxes you can … so maybe.

But regardless - it came with unanticipated strings. Expectations. I wouldn’t play the game. It was uncomfortable on all fronts.

In hindsight, I can see what I was running smack into was that which would metastasize into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion perspectives and policies. It was Fall 1985 when I entered college - we were the test run for what was to come.

Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. It’s so strange on the one hand that those words could be controversial. But they have become so. Mostly, I think, due to them being attached to immutable characteristics and forgoing the pursuit of open inquiry in favor of focusing on power dynamics based on these outward facing details … which are not, imho, WHO people are at their core.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to say that people aren’t judged by how their outsides look. Of course they are, and it’s not fair. Life isn’t ‘fair’ for lots of people on lots of fronts.

And sure, overtly inappropriate policies that favor or offer privilege that’s unearned - not cool, deserves looking at and amending.

But I’m just not a fan of using these immutable characteristics to favor OR reject anyone … certainly not when it comes to group activities. I do think there’s a place for groups of people getting together with common interests or conversations that bear a deeper dive … and I have come to accept that sometimes men just need to be with men and women just need to be with women (and any other gender group one cares to define - I could care less one way or another about that stuff tbh).

There’s all kinds of people who especially have things they need to struggle together with other people who can relate. All good.

But there’s a line somewhere there where imposing views of one group on another within a diverse community, such as a college campus, or a town, or a country and disallowing the other side of the coin …. there’s a line too far that can be crossed.

Anyway, this post is about that video at the top and any discussions or stories that can flow from it. My substack isn’t especially well established yet so there may be traction possible, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I’m all about understanding the foundations of things - this begins to do that trick in this case.

Why [American] Colleges are becoming cults.

We can’t shut down conversation and expect progress at the same time - those two things just don’t go together.

Is it tiresome? yep, Is it necessary? yep.

I’m also going to post a link to this over on my Planet Andrea Locals Community, which is a space dedicated to the exploration of Individual conditioning in general and the possibilities of recovery from the parts we need to to be ourselves - through the lens of Human Design.