I almost started a popular uprising among students today.
I’ve been invited to participate on a panel that will discuss our administration’s plan to move most or all of our courses online. I find it bizarre that nobody is asking students what they think, so I came to class today and asked my students what they think and whether they would like to talk to the panel.
The reaction was so strong that the blowback almost kicked me in the gut and slammed me against the wall. Students were almost violently opposed to the idea of turning our university into an online or mostly online school. Their arguments were brilliant, profound, and insightful. Everybody spoke at length and with extreme eloquence. Students expressed anger at not being placed at the center of a conversation about a change that will impact them in a major way. Words like “activism, protest, 99% , revolution, and uprising” were flying around.
In the end, everybody volunteered to speak to the panel and write statements against online learning.
I barely managed to get students to settle down.
“And now let’s talk about a happier, more optimistic topic than this, namely the Spanish Civil War,” I said.
God, I love my students.
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