aww yeah, it's graduation season again. folks all around the country and the world are passing milestones in education - transitioning from primary to secondary education, earning an associate's or bachelor's degree, or completing master's and other advanced degrees. it so happens my brother just earned his BA from a college in pennsylvania, and the family gathered for encouragement and celebrating his entering a new stage in life. as long as school's been around in the world we've watched the ceremonies and rituals associated with graduation evolve.
at this point it's pretty standard that everybody dresses up in these funny caps and gowns (it's one of the few times you'll catch men of all kinds perfectly comfortable with the fact that what they're wearing is called a 'gown'. well that, and when you go to the doctor for a check-up and you have to put on that awkard paper thingy). all the graduates file into long rows of seats and then wait until each of their names are read aloud and they walk across a stage of sorts and shake hands with administrators, receiving their certificate in the process. but before student's names are called, often times some accomplished administrator, academic, celebrity, or politician gives some kind of address meant to encourage and inspire the graduating class to reach for greater heights of excellence when they step into the 'real' world.
when i heard the speakers referring continuously to my brother's class as being prepared to enter the real world, i couldn't help but wonder where they'd been for the past four years, and the 18 or so before that. clearly the intensity of attending a college or university and the daily patterns of life are unique, and differ greatly from both life and school before college and full-time involvement in the work force afterwards. while these conditions are special and different from other stages in life, i wasn't aware they were significant enough to imply that college exists separately from the rest of the world.
you'll forgive my tone, it's just that i've grown a bit of tired of people constantly separating and dividing different aspects of life into discreet categories that aren't supposed to be related - you know like work is separate from family, which is separate from friends, separate from religion, separate from politics, etc. i remember at one job being told repeatedly that i was lucky to experience certain flexibilities in the workplace, because that certainly wouldn't fly in corporate america. it was quite aggravating because i wasn't working in corporate america, so why should standards of conduct and professionalism exert such an influence on the expectations for my job. now one might notice that i'm making a distinction between corporate america and other industries after railing against excessive divisions in our world view. here lays the nuance of the concept, it is not that there are no distinctions and differences in various realms of human endeavor, but that despite the differences we see, they all take place in a common space (the world) and influence each other (some more greatly than others, power and influence in the world is certainly not balanced).
part of what frustrated me about my experiences being compared with corporate america, was that the implication was that corporate america was the golden standard of what was right and good in terms of effective industry, while the environment in which i was working was some fantasy realm with special rules that don't apply in the 'real' world a.k.a. corporate america. is it too aggressive for me to say that i think that's nonsense? firstly, corporate america is plenty corrupt and not even remotely representative of the principles of justice and equity that i believe should underly all human endeavors, and therefore not the standard i wish to aspire towards in my work. secondly, regardless of how you feel about the standards and principles that should govern industry, the work done by organizations and people 'outside' the context of corporate america very much take place in the REAL world, involve real people, and have real outcomes (some to the benefit of humanity and others of course to the detriment of society, but real consequences nonetheless).
it seems to me a fundamentally flawed perspective to minimize the impact of endeavors not consistent with the corporate model, and one that is not useful if you hope to participate in rebuilding all aspects of society to support true justice and global prosperity.
bottom line.................................get it?
i really intended to touch on some of the other things said commonly in commencement speeches about youth and the future and education, but that'll have to wait til later i guess. in the meantime, holler with your thoughts.
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