I am very excited to announce that we have new features coming to PLM within the next week. We will be introducing three new contributors that will be writing and keeping track of their individual journeys through higher education. Chronicling where they are in their life, they range in age from mid twenties to mid thirties, to why they went back, some are incredibly high powered and successful others are entirely switching careers, to what it is really like day to day to handle the stress that many of us know about: balancing a very busy life, schedule, while still trying to fulfill what it is that we want to do and be in this world.
That last statement very much sums up exactly the reason this place exists. When I was younger, where I grew up, the time I grew up in, intelligence, intellectuals, and education was highly valued. It was rewarded strongly and proudly. It was lauded. It was what you strived to be because being the girl in the tight skirt, high shoes, with the big hair and tons of fake eyelashes was strongly looked down upon. It was considered and they were often referred to as "the last resort" or "last resort girls". Those whom have nothing to rely on inside so they have to use what's outside to live life. They don't think any thing inside is worth any value so why not just use their body to get attention, to get what the people who use their intellects have, to get that life. That they can't possibly shine from the inside out so let's flip it and reverse it.
That way of thinking, making the outside shiny while the inside is still dark and empty, has become the norm in our society. It's something I don't believe in, and in fact strongly disagree with. It's also incredibly terrifying because not only is this the norm of our society it's overwhelmingly, 87%, the focus of the country in one way or another and influencing our future generations.
I find twelve year olds wearing VS PINK thongs, push up bras, mini skirts and fake eye lashes while hanging out at a coffee shop to giggle over college boys sad. Go shower, find kids your own age, read a book, play outside and be a kid while you still are one. Where are your parents?! I find the fact that children graduating high school that don't get a joke about Darwinism simply because they don't know "who or what is that Darwin thing you mentioned?" truly heartbreaking, devastating, and horrifying.
Instead of studying authors such as Vidal, Mailer, Tolstoy, Dickens, London, Fitzgerald, Capote, Poe, Faulkner, Morrison, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Twain, McCarthy, Updike, Salinger or Vonnegut in their Literature or English classes they are instead reading books such as the Twilight Series. Most don't even know any thing of the Bronte sisters, why they're so important, what is Wuthering Heights and why it historically matters. Why does Norman Mailer loathe Gore Vidal or most importantly, why did he get drunk then headbutt him before going on national television to debate an op-ed piece? (yes that last chunk is sarcasm and joking even though I would love to get into that conversation one day). Great authors are not just meant to have their work read, they are meant to be studied themselves because as important as their work may be, their influences and the culture around them at the time is just so.
You can make that argument for musicians, artists, any and every form of intellectual expression you choose and you would be right. The problem is, if our children, this countries future, are not being taught this unless their parents push or influence them to go and find it out on their own, to discover the wonder of it all in an incredibly journey themselves, allowing them to realize what makes their own selves shine organically, will we have a future that believes eyeliner analyzing is more important than equal pay for equal work? And how can we stop this self destructive wheel we have created from spinning?
I am hoping that by our contributors sharing their stories through out the course of their experience we may shed light on what turns so many people away from higher education. And possibly shine the light on what could be changed, maybe even help to start the ball rolling to get it changed, so that more people will turn towards higher education. In turn ensuring that every one has that pivotal moment when they realize the multiple ways in which they shine, from the inside out.
