for one of my classes, i had to interview an educator regarding… education. i interviewed my western civ professor because she fascinates me in the weirdest way. she’s german so her semi-thick german accent coupled with a stutter produce some incomprehensible lectures. however, a couple weeks ago, i saw her waiting to pick up her ten year old son from the elementary school i tutor at and it was then that i decided she is interesting.
in short, i felt like i reached enlightenment after i left that interview. i totally regret not taking advantage of her previous office hours because she is absolutely brilliant. i mean, okay, duh, she’s a professor with a billion years of research under her belt, but listening to the various nuggets of wisdom she pulled out on a whim was completely different from anything she’s ever said in class. this realization made me kind of sad. she’s so knowledgeable in her field and life, but has a difficult time conveying that information until you’re one on one. she actually mentioned her dry lecturing style during the interview and attributed it to the way in which german education is conducted. regardless, i was so impressed with her thought process, the way she approached my questions, but mostly the critical and thought-provoking answers i received. maybe i’m being naive, maybe i’m easily impressed, maybe i didn’t really understand anything she was saying, but i asked her what she thought was one of today’s biggest challenges for students; she paused for a minute and told me this:
“Your challenge will be to see everything in perspective; to see the American position in a global context, but at the same time, to look at the local conditions, where you live to get the perspective. Sometimes I have the feeling that in the US, we are so focused on us that we are missing some of the problems at both the global and local level. We have to make a transition in the way we do business, the way our economy works, from an unsustainable way of living and producing, to a more sustainable way of producing. The way we live right now… we live for however many years and then we’re gone, but while we are alive, we fight wars over oil or some other resource. Resources are more and more limited and we are one of the competitors fighting for those resources. Right now, students think about these things in terms of having to change something eventually. But we need to change things now instead of waiting for the future - you have to confront these problems; you need to take it seriously and develop that sense of urgency, but I don’t know how to teach that. You can do it only if you think globally - how do things that other people do in other countries impact us and vice versa? My quality of life versus another quality of life? I could live my life the way I wanted to and it would probably be okay because I’ve already lived for a long time, but you need to start making a difference. Ask yourself these questions, how can I solve global problems locally? It’s by sending young people abroad, studying other cultures; never by devaluating your own culture, but enriching your own. It’s about making students revolutionary but receptive thinkers, getting them to think globally and find local solutions.”
