Reflections on Henry Giroux’s talk

Alone on the stage,

Hand resting on the podium

He espouses academically and lyrically impassioned pleas

Head cast down to read the next charged statement

Hand moves to fist:

Shakes against the impervious and hegemonic entities.

We ask “How?”

I enjoyed hearing Giroux speak. I felt that he put to words notions, ideas, and feelings which I had perhaps realized, but had not connected so directly or poignantly. I also enjoyed hearing someone speak who invigorates language -who uses it to harness his passionate charges for a more socially-just and democratic society. Giroux affirmed several of my own personal philosophies about youth and the important roles they play in forming the society of our future. He referred to Derrida’s proposed democracy, “a democracy to come” one in which is under constant critique or reformation. This requires adult commitment as a vital public service to be active agents in advocating and articulating dissent against the structures of neoliberalism and maintaining education as a public sphere free of corporatization and militarism. He claimed that education has become separated from politics with the increase of lawsuits against teachers and professors who have given their political perspective in the classroom. Youth have been separated from the social contract and are viewed as a “disposable population.” There has been a shift from youth being seen “as troublesome” to them embodying the adjective: they “are troublesome.” He declared that youth and youth of colour are demonized by mass-media, and today treated in ways which were unthinkable twenty years ago. He referenced the use of psychiatric drugs for behavioural problems and the trend in school disciplinary codes for “Zero Policy.” With a deconstruction of public service to the wider-community in general, schools no longer claim responsibility to disciplinary problems. He stated that surveillance from the schools goes directly to the police so any infraction is dealt with often firstly, as a crime and not as a misbehaviour, which has led to students being criminally-charged for offences like temper tantrums or defying dress codes. According to Giroux, this is problematic because schools should be places that function as democratic public spaces. They should foster critically-minded and active citizens. They are the only public space for youth to engage with the potential reality and promise of resistance.

Giroux’s response to the “How?” question was adequate. He encouraged people to focus on what is important to them, to fight for what spoke to them. I often find students asking presenters for the answers but there is no single answer or route out of the maze – at least not in a democratic sense. However there is hope that if education is based on practices of critically-thinking, social & environmental responsibility, active participation, and fairly-distributed to all, then society may be able to navigate the rocky shoals we are currently encountering.

Ellen Field