Olleana
I watched this movie yesterday, on a local station called THIS which has way too many commercials at key points in the movie, breaking up the flow.
I had read it years ago in a lit book. In that book it was presented as a modern day equivalent to Antigone, so I had read it that way. It is that (maybe) and more.
Seeing it acted is different than reading it; I experienced it differently.
It is a controversial play/movie and one can go elsewhere for discussions about what it is or is not saying about sexual harassment. To me it was more of a debate-causer about higher education.
What makes me qualified to stand in front of my class? Well, SACS--the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has a lot to do with it. They say a college teacher must have a certain credential to teach. I do have those credentials, two masters degrees and hopefully in two years a doctorate. But to get started, to be allowed in front of a class, that's pretty much it. Now, in some colleges the stakes are higher, but the educational level is pretty much it. I must have shown myself capable of achieving that level of education in the discipline, and those who taught me had shown a certain capability, etc. Higher education is definitely a closed system, somewhat inbred, I suppose. And having achieved that level of education then gives me power over others who want to be accepted into that same system; they want that acceptance because some other goal they want requires them to achieve a certain level of higher education.
Of course, getting a college degree does not mean one has really achieved a higher education.
When I meet someone who has not college education, I am torn between amazement and perturbation. These people have either managed to attain skills that have been seen as "good enough" to maintain employment, or they have not taken advantage of what is available to them. I guess I have bought into the system enough that a person who doesn't take advantage of what a higher education can give them appears lazy to me, but even as I write that I know it's suspect. Not everyone should get a college education, but I have a hard time having intellectual respect for anyone who hasn't. They may be awesome at something else, but their horizons are probably limited.
But that is highly elitist of me. On the other hand, I have been told all my life that people with higher educations have no common sense; that is ludricrous. An education does not keep one from being able to use one's hands, to be practical, to run a business. Achieving a higher education does speak to some level of perserverance.
I had read it years ago in a lit book. In that book it was presented as a modern day equivalent to Antigone, so I had read it that way. It is that (maybe) and more.
Seeing it acted is different than reading it; I experienced it differently.
It is a controversial play/movie and one can go elsewhere for discussions about what it is or is not saying about sexual harassment. To me it was more of a debate-causer about higher education.
What makes me qualified to stand in front of my class? Well, SACS--the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has a lot to do with it. They say a college teacher must have a certain credential to teach. I do have those credentials, two masters degrees and hopefully in two years a doctorate. But to get started, to be allowed in front of a class, that's pretty much it. Now, in some colleges the stakes are higher, but the educational level is pretty much it. I must have shown myself capable of achieving that level of education in the discipline, and those who taught me had shown a certain capability, etc. Higher education is definitely a closed system, somewhat inbred, I suppose. And having achieved that level of education then gives me power over others who want to be accepted into that same system; they want that acceptance because some other goal they want requires them to achieve a certain level of higher education.
Of course, getting a college degree does not mean one has really achieved a higher education.
When I meet someone who has not college education, I am torn between amazement and perturbation. These people have either managed to attain skills that have been seen as "good enough" to maintain employment, or they have not taken advantage of what is available to them. I guess I have bought into the system enough that a person who doesn't take advantage of what a higher education can give them appears lazy to me, but even as I write that I know it's suspect. Not everyone should get a college education, but I have a hard time having intellectual respect for anyone who hasn't. They may be awesome at something else, but their horizons are probably limited.
But that is highly elitist of me. On the other hand, I have been told all my life that people with higher educations have no common sense; that is ludricrous. An education does not keep one from being able to use one's hands, to be practical, to run a business. Achieving a higher education does speak to some level of perserverance.
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