Education, social change and listening

After studying at Grinnell College for a semester, my friend Berenice left school to focus on climate and social justice. She felt that what she was learning in classes was not relevant to her longtime goal: to revolutionize our corporate-controlled, classist, racist, patriarchal and environmentally and socially unsustainable society. So she joined the Great March for Climate Action, a national climate justice movement, to stop fossil fuel infrastructure and work with communities on the front lines of climate injustices.

Having read some of my column, Berenice asked me if college had helped me “develop as a change-maker.”

This question overwhelmed me. Berenice and I have similar visions and political and social outlooks, yet our paths are now so different. She dropped out of college, possibly for good, to join a revolutionary movement. I’ve done one of the least revolutionary things someone of my socioeconomic background can do -- attend a private university. After all, will reading about whether Iran deserves a nuclear weapon, or writing a paper about "The Sound and the Fury" (1929), instill the large-scale change I hope for?

Does writing this column even make me a “change-maker?” Am I reaching or impacting anyone other than people who care about these issues already?

I often ignore these overwhelming questions because they’re so damn hard to deal with. But sometimes addressing them helps me: It reminds me that I wouldn’t know that many of the issues I care about existed if it weren’t for college.

Being in college and learning from feminist peers has shown me how patriarchy is embedded in everything -- from social dynamics at parties to the stories we tell. Though I’ve always cared about the environment, I was unfamiliar with environmental justice and ecofeminism until taking a course at Tufts about these issues. I also never thought critically about politics before conversing with other Tufts students, having previously labeled myself a Democrat without contemplating what that identity means and whether it reflects the world I want to live in.

Though I’m still not creating a revolution right at this minute, I see personal growth as an important first step for anyone who wants to create change. Sometimes I worry that my classes don't actually matter, but they may serve me in more ways than I can imagine. A liberal arts education’s strength is that it opens our minds more than it fills them up. It’s impossible to know for sure what’s going to be relevant to us later on.

Moreover, change happens in many ways; perhaps it needs to come from many different sectors of society. Sometimes it requires using our bodies to block the construction of pipelines, as Berenice is bravely doing. Other times, it requires studying the norms and ideologies that cause and perpetuate our society’s environmental, social and economic problems so that we can find informed solutions.

Just because you're not starting a socialist revolution doesn’t mean you are not creating change. Change also comes from talking about issues you’re passionate about, engaging with new activities, ideas, people ... and listening. Lack of listening is an often overlooked factor that prevents us from creating change. It prevents us from empathizing with others, which then allows our society to justify prioritizing profits over people, and certain groups of people over others. If we cannot communicate, listen and respect, we will never see a better world.

I've learned about so many new issues thanks to the brave, powerful communication with which my peers (and some professors)  have provided me. So to answer Berenice's question, yes, college has indeed helped me develop into something -- I'm not sure if I feel comfortable affirming that I am a change-maker, but at least I'm now trying to be that.