Save Ed 190? Yes We Can!

On the first Tuesday of the semester, graduate student instructor Alexis Martin said something revolutionary to me and the nearly 100 others who crammed themselves into a room for 40. "Education is a political act."

I didn't recognize it at the time, but there was something sadly ironic about that first lesson. It wasn't just an abstract concept we would read about in our ridiculously expensive, two-volume readers. It was the reason why more than half of the students who showed up that day and why 250 students in total would be turned away from the class.

Because part of the reason why education is a political act involves how it's funded … or not. The university's response to a growing demand? Plans to close two of the six sections for the course next semester. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal. I mean, a bunch of UC Berkeley students are going to have to sign up for another class during registration, big whoop right?

Wrong! 'Cause it's not just about that-it's about what Education 190 represents.

Since we were little kids, we've been trained to not think on our own. Whether that's being told that we have to color within the lines-or being forced to endure a grading system that often rewards us for being "smart" enough to regurgitate random facts that over-simplify reality … like this whole myth that Christopher Columbus discovered America. News flash! You can't really be the first to discover a country if there are people living there already.

And Education 190 is a complete rejection of this oppressive, mind-numbing, top-down type of education.

This is a class in which "students from a myriad of backgrounds come together to discuss, criticize and (solve)" the Current Issues in Education (name of the class), according to Education 190er Akhil Mehta. "The decision to cut sections for the class" takes away a forum where students "offer unique opinions and solutions" to the problems of "education" and its relationship to "social inequity."

But the implications of closing Education 190 go beyond taking a philosophical stance against an education system that doesn't actually educate. It's about the political consequences of shutting down this class and in translation, endorsing that education system.

I mean, even though this year's historic election would bring in legions of new voters who were previously too disgusted by the corruption that is "politics as usual," the numbers were still pretty pathetic relative to other countries like Austria, which sees 90 percent of the population vote regularly.

That's because the problem of voter turnout is so much more complicated than this "I'm tired of corruption, inefficiency and crap in D.C." storyline. It's about how our education system completely fails in creating an engaged population-ready to think critically about the structural policies plaguing their lives and ready to solve them.

Again, this is where Education 190 likely breaks with most classes you've taken.

I know this might sound completely monumental to those of you who have dabbled in social justice classes at UC Berkeley, but Education 190 isn't just about "complaining" about how eff-ed up our education system is. It's about going out into the community and finding our own solutions.

Years ago, Education 190 students didn't like that as students, we didn't really have control over our education. And the result? The DeCal program. Other Education 190 students recognized that standardized testing is inherently unfair because thanks to Kaplan, Princeton Review and TestMasters, you can essentially buy a higher SAT score. And their solution? Creating the People's Test Prep, a nonprofit that provides free SAT prep courses for students who wouldn't have been able to afford them otherwise.

And in following Education 190 tradition, Fatima Reyes, Yuko Wada and Jeffrey Yang are starting a student group to save this class, one Wada credits with getting students "excited" about education for the first time.

Look-I'm not naive enough to think that writing one column is going to change all of the politics that goes on in deciding which classes to fund and which classes to shut down.

I'm writing because, like so many other Education 190-ers on campus, I know that the answer to political inequity is never political passivity. It's action.

So to everyone who's reading right now: Join the "Save ED 190!" Facebook group. Donate your time and money. And write overly dramatic opinion columns asking others to do the same.

Contact Ed190GSI@lists.berkeley.edu for more information.

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