Remix: Coming to Terms

Transcript

Hi, welcome to my podcast, Engaging with Conversations. Today I’m coming to terms with a chapter called “Educating Human Capital” from Wendy Brown’s book Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. I want to focus on reasons that people choose to learn, specifically the fact that we can have multiple reasons in our decision-making. When I was younger, high school, middle school, and all that education just seemed like required work I had to do instead of meaningful learning. As I’ve grown, I’ve come to respect the value of learning and the opportunity I have thanks to society's education system. So this idea of choosing to learn is an important topic to me.

​

I'll review Brown's text. In her book chapter, Brown explored how US higher education was affected by neoliberalism, which she defined as, and I quote: “not simply as economic policy, but as a governing rationality that disseminates market values and metrics to every sphere of life and construes the human itself exclusively as homo oeconomicus.” Brown described how this mental model has influenced decision-making in all levels of society and thus contributed to various issues, most drastically by threatening US democracy, claiming that liberal arts education was necessary to maintain democracy. Brown described how learning nowadays is only undertaken for career benefit, and students are increasingly prioritizing career-oriented majors and training over broader educations in college that Brown believed necessary for intelligent citizenship. Her perspective offers a useful mirror reflecting on why I chose computer science as my college major: primarily for its connection to a high-paying and safe career. However, that’s not my only reason for studying it, and I believe there’s more to learning than Brown said.

​

For most of my childhood, I loved math in school: understanding it, solving problems, tutoring peers, and achieving success. But when I thought about my future, I had the career-oriented perspective that Brown described, with a limited view regarding math. I remember a conversation my parents and I had, chatting about careers in math. My dad told me “Accounting is a good field, like your grandmother did after she graduated college at 19. Actuarial science is another field that pays very well with a lot of math. But they have the highest stress and suicide rates. Or you could be a teacher.” I wanted that pay but was vaguely decided that I wouldn’t pursue math. My parents had both studied electrical engineering before becoming business owners, and the engineering- technology route seemed like a good choice to my “neoliberal” thinking. Brown might suggest I was using “Return on Investment” to determine my choice, and she would not be wrong. However, there are many careers that pay well with acceptable quality of life, and I was still attempting to support my passion for math. I had heard math had some similarities with other STEM fields, and I was interested in pursuing that.

​

When I heard my high school offered an intro computer science class, I decided to try it. I got lucky and found a great teacher who kept the class challenging but engaging, and I really enjoyed it. My favorite part was when we built and programmed these LEGO robots for class competitions, like racing in a maze or making the slowest robot. Competing with my classmates and being able to feel the robots we were physically building helped me learn my second programming language and develop my understanding of technology. My teacher offered me future CS classes and other projects. I really enjoyed those and learned a lot from him. I looked forward to studying computer science in college and pursuing it as a career.

 

Brown claimed, and I quote “However, knowledge is not sought for purposes apart from capital enhancement, whether that capital is human, corporate, or financial.” And yeah, the financial security from the salary and popularity of jobs in computer science is a major reason that I still plan to work in that field and currently study it in undergrad and pursue it as a hobby. However, I also have a personal passion for it, enjoying it just as I enjoy math, and I’m interested in spending a significant part of my life in this field. I’ve found that it's improved my personal life by teaching me more about the laptop I use every day and other ways I can use it. I also pursue psychology and philosophy, which relate to my personal interests and religion, and I generally attempt to explore new things. I plan to take courses in undergrad related to those interests and perhaps get a minor, but I don’t have a career-oriented goal here. I'm seeking personal growth. That is a deep value of mine, and one of my primary goals for my time in college; I want to change how I think and interact with the world. There are other people with similar values, and Brown’s text doesn't really account for that, just concentrating on those thinking with neoliberal values and the absence of a cultured, leisurely class. However, there's often more complexity in people’s choices for their educations than can be explained by a single rationale. Other values like passion and growth can be significant.

​

And that concludes this podcast, Coming to Terms. This podcast is part of my mission to deliver valuable content in a sustainable method. This podcast was produced with the support of the University of Connecticut. Thank you for listening. 

 

References

Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution by Wendy Brown

​