A Different Vision of Education

In many ways, I think this quotation is what higher education in the arts ought to be: recognizing talent, and patiently helping it to emerge. I used to tell my students that I would consider myself a failure if any of them became little versions of me. I was here, I said, to help them fully become themselves. The task isn’t “to teach them how to do it,” it’s “to teach them how THEY do it.”

“There’s a beautiful passage Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza wrote in the wake of the 2016 election: This is a moment for all of us to remember who we were when we stepped into the movement—to remember the organizers who were patient with us, who disagreed with us and yet stayed connected, who smiled knowingly when our self-righteousness consumed us. Building a movement requires reaching out beyond the people who agree with you. I remember who I was before I gave my life to the movement. Someone was patient with me. Someone saw that I had something to contribute. Someone stuck with me. Someone did the work to increase my commitment. Someone taught me how to be accountable. Someone opened my eyes to the root causes of the problems we face. Someone pushed me to call forward my vision for the future. Someone trained me to bring other people who are looking for a movement into one.”

Whose Story Is This? Rebecca Solnit