This Social Context

Collage by Aydasara Ortega

The social context we find ourselves informs our social consciousness. Think of a college student for instance. They go back and forth from their place of residence to college grounds, quite a lot work over 30 hours a week, for many English is a second language, and others are accountable for child or familial care. “Alright then. Let’s save the world. (J. R. Kirsch. Age of Suicide.)”

Isn’t it evident that finding themselves within “this social context” they experience their “everyday” lacking time and energy to discuss issues that give rise and perpetuate exactly that: “this social context”? How much of a “necessary knowledge” for informed participation in democracy can these college “learners” obtain?

“For what is put into question is precisely the quest for a rightful beginning,
an absolute point of departure,
a principal responsibility.”

– Jacques Derrida. Margins of Philosophy

But what if we speak up in favor of education? What if we freely nurture the skills that will allow us all to see how each person’s individual troubles and the larger economic and political context are pieced together? What if we all believed in the same “thing”: that all students deserve the opportunity to receive an affordable, quality education from the earliest stages of schooling to high-level degrees? Learning – that which shapes each social consciousness – should be reinforced not disjointed.