Courtesy of John Opie (1761-1807)
The Mossy Log is proud to present a preview of the Backdoor Editor’s upcoming original essay. Any similarities to previously-written work are purely coincidental. Come at me, Wollstonecraft Estate:
In the present state of society it appears necessary to go back to first principles in the search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. I must be allowed to pursue some plain questions — namely, in what acquirement do we put one person above the other? Is it reason? Or virtue?
No. It is a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from an accredited university.
As in our society this institution, this emblem of our self-improvement and betterment has come under attack from those in government who would determine who is worthy and who is not. It is to me tantamount we may attempt to defend our right to pursue this betterment without its stifling due to our station as students.
My vindication will utilize the principles of sensibility, a difficult and obscure practice, referring not to common sense but to the perception of and responsiveness to something. With such a practice, one which may otherwise be called empathy, that rarest of virtues, I will pursue a defense of these creatures who make up much of our society, who may be even considered our fellow person.
A student is in essence a young person, one with some access and aptitude towards academic study, who participates in education beyond what is mandated for all. A student is not, as some would ascribe to them, a flighty or over-privileged or elite or out-of-touch being by nature. While these traits may exist in some, those who we may call “silly students,” the student is not removed from their capacity toward betterment by any inherent part of their nature. Those that do remove themselves do so on their own accord.
If a student that is capable of rational thought, as all students are, is worthy and deserving of a rational education. Proposals for “learning about the real world” or some education that would make certain students return to domesticity negate that real, if under-realized, capability of rational thought.
Such failures are not the fault of students alone — they are treated as incapable, and do not assign to themselves the ability to seek better. Our fellow people, who are written off as less than, in being so maligned as such have no option but to see themselves that way.
To be taught from the infancy of one’s academic career that silliness and immaturity is all one will be capable of confines the student to a meme-d cage, those gilt bars of eye-rolls and jokes at the expense of one’s capability, their mind and their fashion. Students become resigned to be less than when they are in actuality just as full of potential as those who have not been absorbed to the academic track.
The continued attack on a student’s place in society, the rollback of what few advances these creatures have made toward being accepted as worthy and capable of respect, is the opposite of progress. Only when students are treated as reasonable and capable fellow human beings will the advancement of humanity have made another step in a good direction.
Those attacks on Pell grants, those promises to tax institutions, those genuine attempts to rob these beings of their curiosity and reason, to squash their minds, to stifle their growth — they keep us all down. The denial of the students’ reason is the denial of their humanity.
Preorder your copy of Emma Ford’s manifesto at the campus bookstore today!
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