Post-Giroux Musing...

After going through my scribblings from Henry Giroux’s talk, I realized two things: a) I need to learn how to take faster notes and b) the neoliberal ideologies that I have been railing against in city-building and urban “planning” (privatization of public spaces and community development) are just as insidious - if not more so - in the education system. With consumerism as “the principal organizer of every day life,” it doesn’t come as a surprise that the marketplace has crept into the education system as deeply as it has, but I found particularly interesting Giroux’s assertion that the “politics of disposability” has become entrenched in North American society.

For me, the idea of disposability, whether it be in the education system or in the urban development realm, is the anti-thesis of any kind of responsible environmentalism. An oft-quoted phrase reminds us that America’s greatest natural resource is its children, but Giroux’s discussion of the demonization of America’s youth makes an interesting statement about a relationship with “natural resources” that is as destructive socially as it is ecologically.

I also enjoyed his discussion of university as a training-ground for corporate culture. Having studied social sciences and arts as long as the option was available, I have witnessed the subtle and not-so-subtle pushback that encourages students to be “practical” and treat education as a means to an end rather than an end itself. It's always nice to be reminded of the fact that education is a worthy pursuit in-and-of-itself.

Finally, Giroux’s reminder that educators have the responsibility to provide students with the ability to be literate beyond print was one that struck home with me. It seems ironic to me that the visual pollution that encroaches on our (decreasingly) public spaces requires an ability to read text and images, but betrays an illiteracy to environmental and educational concerns that might treat people as more than omnivorous and insatiable consumers.

I also took from Giroux’s talk the desire to express passion when speaking in public; the impending implosion of our society never sounded so articulate!

(Above image is of the soon-to-be-opened Metropolis at Yonge and Dundas...)