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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectDo you spend a lot of time around students?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13403627&mesg_id=13403703
13403703, Do you spend a lot of time around students?
Posted by Walleye, Wed Sep-16-20 09:13 AM
If so, maybe your experience is different, and I'd be happy to hear it. But I've had around 100 per semester (about 150 this semester) and they're radicalized already, in substantial numbers. Just done with all of this bullshit and looking for authentic ways to relate to one another.

I try to put words and context to what they're experiencing, and give them ways to step outside that and look at their place in the world and in history. That means telling them, truthfully, what capitalism has done and continues to do in their lives. All of this is in service of preparing them for a world they're going to take for themselves one day.

Given their urgency, I hope that happens sooner rather than later. Mass social action is one way that can occur. But so are small acts of solidarity that show other people that until all of us are free, none of us are. If somebody takes one of my classes and decides this is important enough to act on, then that means I've done my job.