My Agony For College
Farah M Saddha ( Activist , Entrepreneur , Author and participant of Women Empowerment principles and United Nations Global Compact )
First Published on New Nation March 2. 2000
Dedicated to All my students at Asian university , Bangladesh .
An English Poet once wrote : above all universities There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university . It is a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to make others see :where seekers and learners alike , bonded together in the search for knowledge will honour thought in all its finer ways will welcome thinkers in distress or in exile , will uphold ever the dignity of thought and learning . But this is not true for today’s colleges . College is now an institution where students think of good jobs and money, besides their intellectual development for new ideas and broader prospectives . I think that the time has come for college to make a big change . The main purpose of a college should be to build confidence in students . It should be a place where the meaning of learning should be for the soul , not for money . The relationship among students and teachers should be illuminated by reason and understanding ; for women there needs to be more attention , encouragement in the college to stand against all the discrimination .
I think that youth is the perfect time to search for personal identity which always requires a lot of patience and pain . When a student thinks analytically or differently , he feels this pain inside . A majority of students try to avoid this stress and study only according to the college curriculum which needs to be changed . The college curriculum should focus more on student’s personal development , critical thinking and try to establish more linkage with the outside world . It will help the students to replace feelings of embarrassment about cultural differences with the feelings of pride . Then they will be able to measure their achievements by soul not by money , status or power . For the change of the whole education system feminist and intelligent writer Bell hooks thinks the same way I do . In her essay ‘Pedagogy and political commitment: a comment’ She said struggling to educate for liberation in the corporate university as a process that I have found enormously stressful . Implementing new teaching struggles were aim to subvert the norm, to engage students fully is really a difficult task . I am confident that this is true for the vast majority of American universities and colleges .The students need an education that prepares themselves for the practical realities of life . All student should be required to take at least one course which offer scope for linguistic , cultural , personal and intellectual development.
It is also very important in a college to reshape the relationship among the students and the teachers which is at present very authoritative. Teachers have no time for individual interaction with their students . This is another aspect to the fragility of the college .Why is this distance between a student and a teacher . Is it the whole education system which creates all these complexities ? I think that the whole environment of the colleges should be more democratic rather than being authoritative . Each student should participate in close discussions and communicate more with his own individual teachers . It is the responsibility of the teachers to investigate to guide his or her students to pay more attention to their studies . Facilities shouldn’t be isolated from students , because college exists for the students not for the facilities . For many professors teaching is a secondary job , they are more interested in their research of them the students are simply a means to that end , students need intimate contact with their professors aside from the lecture platform.
And then again I feel that the time has come of all female students to stand against all the discrimination they experience in the college for just being female students .i agree with Adrienne Rich who wrote about women’s educational needs in her essay ‘Claiming an education .’In this essay Rich wrote ‘ The difference is that between acting and being acted upon , and for women it can literally mean the difference between life and death’From the very beginning of their lives female children are taught by their parents that they do not need to go to college . They should take care of their home and husbands . Even though they go to colleges they are treated as equal objects by their classmates and professors . They are the ‘female students’ not the general students .
Despite the rapid growth of the feminist movement all over the world there has been very little discussion of women’s educational needs . Women really need to think of the importance of education in their life . In the colleges they should study very hard to challenge their male students . They should realise that this is their only key to conquer all the discrimination and prejudices against them all through their life . I find little confidence when I see that women are changing ,they want an identity outside the family , they want to stand by themselves .They need encouragement , support and advice .As I am very optimistic about my college , I think that one day all the problem will be solved , the discrimination will be removed and I will feel happy instead of feeling agony for my college .
