The #blacklivesmatter incident sparked some lively, international debate - it particularly struck me how perceptions of what a current #highereducation teacher should be, act, behave, even *be* appeared to vary wildly, depending on quite a number of factors.
Even as I'm writing, I think there's a specific, global debate being had about people's conduct in all areas of life, so why not the most important one?
If you control the universities, then you basically control the thoughts & messages of a nation's working elite.
If the elite, already conditioned by schools, into aspirations to "lead" the mass-minions at the bottom of the social strata, are ready to complete their entry-ticket to professional life & take their rightful place at the helm of a desk in an institution. They buy in, they comply, they follow, and they expect.
Students are often the product of a media dominated nanny state that's dedicated to telling them what not to think. Add to that the bizarre idea that education is merely another customer service, and any free thinker will find themselves rapidly put out on the pavement.
To be completely fair, it's a free *speaker* that'll be pilloried, you can still think what you like, as long as you don't say it out loud. It is also advised, that you don't let it show on your face.
Then comes the inevitable - that much'v this has come about because'v bad practice, and abuse of people in power, who even then, have overstepped their professional boundaries, often knew they were doing so, and had perhaps even deluded themselves into believing that what was happening was a by-product of their unique educational "process", or simply a "perk", of the job. However, I still also believe people don't control who they fall in love with.
In a sense - particularly because of the latter-day repackaging of higher education product - the course, customer and college ain't what it used to be, so why should the customer service component (or what used to be called, "teaching") remain the same?
