have you ever sat in class, listening to your professor wax lyrical about the same ol' same ol', week in, week out?
my prof's lecture today wasn't any different. his lecture from day 1 till today has been the same - fellow classmates and i flip our pages to find photocopied ideas manifested in our personal handwriting, page after page after page. industrialisation, democracy, condition for..., civil war.., power projection, fragmented society and so on. oh yes, might i add that he loves to give credit to himself: "I call this...", "this is my term..", you get my drift.
it's strange when people do not realise the room is filled only with their voices, their thoughts, their ideas. the presumed one-sided confucian mode of education seems to be apparent also in europe. not in terms of its normative outlook, but how egocentric their perspectives can be.
voicing opinions in this class is met with interruptions, an increase in my prof's volume, and the unresolution that leaves a bland taste in everyone's mouth due to his inability to give another opinion that is not western-biased. it is rather disappointing.
here we are in an institution evolved from modernism, humanism and the enlightenment where individuals (i say the individual, my prof says "people") have the ability and potential to self-emancipate from their ignorance (can you already tell my adoration for Kant?), yet one-sided, albeit valued, opinion stagnates the total function of education. half of the readings in our reader is of his work which cover the same geopolitical opinion and frameworks of analysis. it practically is, ground hog day every monday.
eurocentrism is something i've had to deal with many a time - from meeting europeans, studying their history, watching their news and now, living among them. it isn't a big deal when individual people have a tinge of this. the chinese, afterall, are big smartasses too. but if a professor can't see beyond his own nose, what then, about those who have no personal opinion who sit and literally absorb and assimilate what's been said? oh, you know, those that flutter with the wind, go with the flow, etc etc. uni, regardless of country, is surprisingly filled with such people.
hello, wake up.
my prof's lecture today wasn't any different. his lecture from day 1 till today has been the same - fellow classmates and i flip our pages to find photocopied ideas manifested in our personal handwriting, page after page after page. industrialisation, democracy, condition for..., civil war.., power projection, fragmented society and so on. oh yes, might i add that he loves to give credit to himself: "I call this...", "this is my term..", you get my drift.
it's strange when people do not realise the room is filled only with their voices, their thoughts, their ideas. the presumed one-sided confucian mode of education seems to be apparent also in europe. not in terms of its normative outlook, but how egocentric their perspectives can be.
voicing opinions in this class is met with interruptions, an increase in my prof's volume, and the unresolution that leaves a bland taste in everyone's mouth due to his inability to give another opinion that is not western-biased. it is rather disappointing.
here we are in an institution evolved from modernism, humanism and the enlightenment where individuals (i say the individual, my prof says "people") have the ability and potential to self-emancipate from their ignorance (can you already tell my adoration for Kant?), yet one-sided, albeit valued, opinion stagnates the total function of education. half of the readings in our reader is of his work which cover the same geopolitical opinion and frameworks of analysis. it practically is, ground hog day every monday.
eurocentrism is something i've had to deal with many a time - from meeting europeans, studying their history, watching their news and now, living among them. it isn't a big deal when individual people have a tinge of this. the chinese, afterall, are big smartasses too. but if a professor can't see beyond his own nose, what then, about those who have no personal opinion who sit and literally absorb and assimilate what's been said? oh, you know, those that flutter with the wind, go with the flow, etc etc. uni, regardless of country, is surprisingly filled with such people.
hello, wake up.
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