Re: [xmca] From NYTimes: Brazil’s Leftist Ruling Party, Born of Protests, Is Perplexed by Revolt

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Many thoughts on your summary of the situation from where you live and work,
David.

Here my most vivid impression after a year of teaching a "theory and
practice" course with more or less the same students..... a whole academic
year. It was a
great experience, but there is a huge gap between student expectations and
faculty
concerns. The students are terrified of the future. They see a long haul
from barista to barrister, or whatever their aims are.

They have learned, "mastered" in Jim Wertsch's sense, the melange of
theories that faculty use to analyse various forms of communication,
broadly construed. The faculty is in fashion these days in the range of
fields it draws upon. A lot of critical
theory.

They want jobs. Event planning, marketing, pr, advertising....... you know,
the kind of stuff a university SHOULD be teaching.("Why, look at San Diego
State down the road! They do a much better job of preparing us for our
futures than you do.")

As professionals when it came down to actually planning the real event
these students were, by and large, pros. And what didn't know, they had the
good sense to learn during this class: web skills, filming and editing
skills, blogging skills, all of which, they knew or believed they new, were
actually instrumental to shining at THE EVENT.

But linking events of the sort that people go to a lot of trouble of
planning, to any general principles of communication? Naw, that's not
possible! Makes for interesting teaching. I learned a lot. A syllabus on
"eventology" has been put together by
the class to present to the faculty.

So what? I cannot save them from their futures. I can try to prepare them
for
their futures, but they know a lot more about it than I do? Or a lot
differently.

The value of democracy? From what I see around me, democracy rides on the
back of either a full stomach, or at least the promise of a fuller stomach.
But if it comes down to one-person-vs one vote on the one hand, and a full
enough stomach on the other. people seem to be able to stomach some very
difficult forms of life.

The solution? Quien sabe?
mike


On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 5:53 PM, David Preiss <daviddpreiss@gmail.com>wrote:

> Chile has been experiencing the same level of unrest for several years.
> Interestingly the focus of protests here is on the inequalities of our
> educational system, which express the ominous inequalities of Chilean
> society. The "student movement" has thus galvanized a broad demand for
> social justice, although some of their demands may have consequences that
> would not necessarily foster social justice if applied as requested without
> adding other structural reforms. The more contentious issue is whether
> university education should be free for all. As the universities here
> recruit most of their students among the socio-ecomomically advantaged,
> free public education at the university level will give more money to those
> that have more resources. In a country where the majority of poor kids
> don't have access to a good pre-school education many people think we
> should address preschool education first.
>
> My main concern is how this social unrest can be channeled in a way that
> strengthens democracy. So far, our politicians have been incapable to
> provide an adequate interpretation to what is going on. And to the lack of
> communication between politicians and the public we can add that there is a
> generational struggle going on between the generations that were educated
> in a recovered democracy and the older ones that had to go through the ugly
> business of reconquering it by means of negotiation and not violence.
> Unfortunately, many of the protests have provided the occasion to violent
> clashes between protesters and the police as we are seeing in Turkey and
> Brazil. And students have adopted strategies that some people may share,
> and some others not: e.g., occupying schools, universities, stopping
> classes, and so. On the other hand, some student leaders are not
> necessarily "dialogical" (neither is the government). So, we have been in
> an impasse for almost half decade.
>
> There is a lot at stake here. Not only whether people would pay or not
> according to their means for a public funded university education but also
> the way disagreements are and will be solved within Chilean democracy. Are
> our institutions solid enough to provide a good solution to civil unrest or
> would the country enter a stage of increasing polarization that would take
> the issue to a different arena where those with more power will end up
> imposing their views?
>
> On Jun 20, 2013, at 4:04 PM, mike cole wrote:
>
> > Here is what a leading American newspaper is telling its readers about
> > Brazil today, for those outside of Brazil who have not been following
> > events.
> > mike
> >
> >
> >
> >>       Brazil’s Leftist Ruling Party, Born of Protests, Is Perplexed by
> >> Revolt
> >> <
> http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=InCMR7g4BCKC2wiZPkcVUhzORrBwHzZn&user_id=bd31502e6eb851a9261827fdfbbcdf6d&email_type=eta&task_id=137175838146698>
> By
> >> SIMON ROMERO
> >>
> >> The governing Workers Party is watching with dismay as Brazil’s largest
> >> city braces for a new round of demonstrations on Thursday.
> >>    Or, copy and paste this URL into your browser:
> http://nyti.ms/16jagoV
> >> <
> http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=InCMR7g4BCKC2wiZPkcVUhzORrBwHzZn&user_id=bd31502e6eb851a9261827fdfbbcdf6d&email_type=eta&task_id=137175838146698>
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> >
> >> | The New York Times Company<
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