For me, one of the scariest parts of college has been trying to figure out what I want to "do" with my life. For some people this comes fairly easily - my older sister, for example, has felt called to be a pastor since about eighth grade - but for the rest of us, it can be a frustrating process. Upon entering college all I really knew was that I wanted to save the world. This led me to a tough question: HOW?
After a semester of throwing this question around in my head, I enrolled in Modern African History to fulfill my Global Studies requirement. At first I was a bit apprehensive about all the reading involved in this class, but it didn't take me long to figure out that there was something special about what we were reading. Perhaps most significant to me was reading about the Soweto uprising in South Africa, which occured during apartheid. At this time black children were given a tragically subpar education, and they decided to peacefully protest this oppression through walkouts. Police began attacking the crowds of school children, and over the span of about a year about 1,000 students were killed.
These students were literally ready to die in order to get a proper education.
Reading about this tragedy led me to my answer: I would save the world by educating its children. I believe that through effective education virtually all of the world's problems can be resolved. This is why I choose to teach.
Tswelela solofela,
Tom Bishoff
1 comment:
Tom,
Indeed, the notion of "Saving the World" may need to be taken literally for our next generation of teachers. We are in a critical period of life on the planet and there is no question in my mind we need to teach for a quite different future for our students. I will look forward to reading more of your ideas on this topic.
Thanks for your effort setting up this blog.
Dr. Langholz
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