[MUSIC]

Any other thoughts on this issue before we go onto other ones?

Rebecca, you were.

>> yeah, I was thinking that it's not going to solve anything probably.

But, at the very least, like, communication and intercultural exchange

on issues like these even just talking and seeing how other cultures live.

Even if it's not imposed to some extent, just exposure does

tend to change people, and the way they think about things like this.

So it's not a solution, but yeah.

>> Yeah education is [CROSSTALK]. Yeah.

Did you want to add something?

>> I do agree that sort of,

that as you're mentioning intercultural exchange is important.

But yeah, that's a, a really hard place where

you're going into a community that you don't quite understand.

>> Yeah, I, I, and I set it up a little bit tendentiously, as,

as the people, if you, if folks

who've been reading the Martha Muss, Nussbaum things

from last week will know, there are plenty of women

in China and India who are voicing this very complaint.

So, in other words, it doesn't have to, it doesn't just come from the outside.

It comes from victims of discrimination themselves.

What Sen did, which was just an extraordinary contribution

to thinking about social justice, is to identify victims

who, who can't speak because they're no longer are

alive, but a systemic dilemma and raising that awareness

actually, did not prompt some people to say, yes, and

it's a good thing too we're killing off these female fetuses.

They didn't say that.

They didn't say, we have a in principle disagreement with you.

They, they, they said, oh gosh, this is horrible.

I didn't know everybody else was doing it, too.

So, it does create this exchange.

And one of the things I found, I guess, you know, because my job

is to be optimistic from time to time, I, I did find it very interesting

as we went through these, these

really tough issues, poverty, climate change, disease

and global health, gender and education, social

change, that education came up every week.

As in, a crucial ingredient, whether you were the most

kind of measuring oriented person or the more holistic person.

Not one kind of education to, to your point Ari, that it's not

just going to college, but finding ways for people to articulate their concern,

share them, and to understand better, some basic fact.

I mean, the science of certain things, like in other

words, if you think you get AIDS from ways that

you don't get AIDS, learning how AIDS is transmitted is

actually a very crucial way of defending yourself against disease.

Understanding the relationship of mosquito nets to the spread of malaria is

extraordinary helpful and you can go on and on down the line.

literacy, not telling people what to read, but

giving people the capacity to read, this very important.

And, so, I found it ho, ho, hopeful I guess, that education, which

is something we do know something about is really key, and maybe

that's why so many students are involved in, in tutoring at Wesleyan,

or is that I mean, we, we're committed to increasing capacity through education.

Does that seem reason, education of different kinds?

>> Well, at the same time

>> Or is that too Pollyanna-ish?

[LAUGH]

>> Well, at the same time, though, like, Wesleyan as a community of learning

has a very strong exclusionary border of who lets in and who lets out.

Right now, we're participating in a massive online course that's

free and, and wonderful and is the kind of learning.

At least I would like to see embodied in, in more things like that.

>> Yeah.

It's hard to get, what he's staying is, it's

really hard to get in here and it's really expensive.

He's being very polite. It's very expensive.

We do have financial aid for somewhere between 30 and 45% our students but it's

still, it's not easy to, to just walk in the door as it is into walking in a MOOC.

It's, it is interesting, and I get this question

a lot from people, how can you be president

of a highly selective university that's hard to get

into even if you're done very well and then

offer these free course around the world for tens of thousands of people?

And it is a balancing act.

I do think we have a kind of moral imperative

to, within our means, share what we know, you know.

And it costs us some money to put these courses on, and,

you know, we ask for some contributions, and people give some contributions.

But the faculty and the students who are doing these classes and

the staff who are filming it behind the cameras, I think they're,

as one of my colleagues say, it's very cool to actually share what you know.

And, and just share it, and not tell people how to take a test on it

or, or to pay for it, just to share it and hope, hope that it's helpful.

>> And so when we're pressing this idea around education are we then merely

saying that if we are educating people then they become better people in a sense?

I think for me the, the pressing

thing what you have just said is that

with education we liberate people from totalitarianism guess.

From a means of oppression, or whatever way it is.

Maybe, maybe it's the poverty, or is it maybe,

I don't know, whatever means that they're suffering from.

Is that, it gives them a means to kind of

go process impediments, or this particular problem within their own lives.

Which is kinder than, I think, then links a lot

to what this country's all about, I guess.

Thomas Jefferson, that whole idea is that educate people to liberate

themselves, which is a very, pressing, pretty big, kind of broad thing.

Is it then, for me then, is it saying that liberal arts is the way?

Is it or are we then saying that all means of education.

>> I'm with Arie here, I don't want to say that one

kind of education, even the kind I love, liberal arts education,

is the only way.

I mean I think, I, I just, I guess

I just think of it as, as capac, capacity building

and there are lots of different ways to build capacity

and it really depends on who and where you are.

Some people, some people want something else than a liberal education.

But I think that the kind of education that allows

you to keep learning, whatever we call that, you know?

So that as your circumstances change, you can continue to learn.

That is the education, it seems to me,

that has the greatest payoff.

Because you're continuing to learn, and I know a lot of students in this,

in this are not getting credit for this course really, as far as I know.

>> Paid $50 for your signature track.

>> Now you can pay for a certificate, but

you're, but I think what's, what you get is the

sense of, that you're expanding your horizons and, and I

mean you're a, did you say an English major before?

>> Mm-hm.

>> So there's not

the most utilitarian [LAUGH] Processes?

>> Well my father is an English major and now he's a doctor.

So. >> Well, there you are.

So, so how did you choose that?

How did you choose to be, is it literature that you love?

It is?

>> I mean I really like to read but, really, it's

that I couldn't choose and English seemed very open and wide and.

>> And has it been that way?

Are you able to, to, to study the things you want?

>> Yeah. Yeah.

I'm I'm in a, course

right.

Well I'm signed up, registered for two courses, in English.

And one of them is like a British Modernist thing.

>> Mm-hm.

>> And then the other one's totally different.

It's like a narrative and ideology theories and.

>> Uh-huh. >> Yeah.

>> And, and so in that sense it does

sound like, for you, it's a, a horizon expanding.

Is that, you know?

>> Mm-hm. Yeah.

I, I mean, I want to do everything. >> Yeah.

>> I, like, got to the end of my sophomore year and

I was like, I want to do these ten different majors so.

>> Hm.

Yeah, how about you?

What, you, you're involved in pretty, pretty active research projects as well.

>> Yeah, I'm currently writing a thesis in the psychology department.

I came into Wesleyan with the decision that I

wanted to go into science and perhaps medical school.

Since changed my mind.

And, and really recognized working at the career center,

the value of a liberal arts education.

Now that I've focused on psychology and neuroscience, I'm looking to go

into tech and business, which is a really bizarre transition, I guess.

>> Not necessarily.

>> [LAUGH] But after interning this past summer at a tech startup in

New York City, and then shadowing a couple of Wes alum, over winter break.

I decided that's really the direction I want to go in.

>> Mm-hm.

>> So I think that, that something that

Wesleyan has afforded me is really understanding how

my skills are transferable outside of the classroom.

>> Mm-hm.

>> So data analysis, or right now I'm

working on content analysis in a digital humanities project.

>> I see.

>> So I'm learning a different way of thinking

that I think will be applicable in other regions.

but, but yeah.

It's definitely a, a process, like you were saying.

kind of want to do a little bit of everything.

And that's why I think liberal arts is really the way to go.

>> So in, in in

the United States the Wesleyan is known as a, as a pretty activistic campus.

People do thing of Wesleyan and, and as a

place of where there's political consciousness and political activism.

If and I was student here, as you know, in the 70s and, and the anti-apartheid

struggle and environmental issues were and feminism were really very

powerful, galvanizing issues on campus.

Is there an issue, I mean probably if you had to pick and issue or two

that you think is galvanizing or could galvanize

students today what, what, what would it be?

Is it climate change?

Is it inequality? Is it something else entirely?

>> Well, just going back to education and Wesleyan and the MOOC.

I just think, I can't help.

I can't be here and not make this point. I feel that it's incredibly

ironic that like, of all the things that we kind of offer

for free to the outside world is the actual content of the classes,

like the modern, post-modern and all those other great classes that Wesleyan offers

online, because you see it in that bottom what this institution is about.

Which might not necessarily be about offering classes

because you can get a Wesleyan education online.

But it's all about, you know, other

commensurate privileges of being a university student here.

Like, people, for free online can take a Wesleyan course,

but they can't sleep in a Wesleyan dorm or ride in our community service vans.

Or like, you know, things like that, you know?

That you don't often associate as actually being the intention of a university.

Yet, here we are, offering the education for free,

but in many other ways, keeping our doors closed.

>> Yeah, it's a small place.

We have about 3.000 students, so just

under 3,000 students, and a constant discussion about

what should it take, you know, to get in, you

know, it, it, what, what should be the criteria when you?

But I suppose if you had 30,000 students you'd also,

you know, you would, you would have to not say

yes to everyone but if you were doing something well,

people would want to, more people would want to come.

It is an interesting dilemma in education today.

What can you share for free while preserving your ability to offer what

you do on a campus?

And our, our decision at Wesleyan so far has been that we,

we want to offer strong examples of the classes we offer on campus.

Knowing full well that it's, it's one experience online.

It's a different, it's a different experience when you're here.

Let's go back to this question about if

there's a political issue that galvanizes students today either

here or if you see more generally. What would that be?

>> I'm not sure.

I have to say when I look at all of

the activism that's going on in school, I'm pretty overwhelmed.

[LAUGH] >> Mm-hm.

>> And unless there's like a major, I guess

the thing we watched of the active news they

were saying that people feel very strongly about news

and I find that when something big happens in

like world news. >> Mm-hm.

>> Like when Syria first really got going,

>> Yep.

>> People get behind that pretty quickly, but I think

over the long-term, if there's nothing really big happening sometimes.

It, there's a lot of stuff going on, on campus, but I think

there's so much of it, and so many different things that sometimes I just.

>> Yeah, so, it's, there's not one galvanizing thing

that, you know. >> Yeah.

>> I think one sustainability, has been an

ongoing issue that Wesleyan students are definitely passionate about.

Particularly with the Sustainability Office and Jennifer, just

added to our team a couple years ago.

With Wild West, which is a sustainable permaculture.

>> Yep.

>> And the idea of creating a garden that

we can hopefully get some fruit from that or something.

>> And the farm, right? >> And the farm.

And local food co-ops.

They're great with option of trade, trading in

meal points for local food, meat, produce, eggs, dairy.

Pretty much anything you can imagine.

So I think sustainability is something that's often on our minds.

If we're going to pick one issue that,

that we're definitely thinking about a lot.

>> Any other issues come to mind?

For me, like instead of focusing on like one issue,

of like, whether it be sustainability, or health care or whatever,

I think what, for me I feel on campus is

a kind of a mode of like coming at these issues,

which is like to see your daily life, your place, Middletown

Wesleyan University as like, a place where all this is happening.

So not just thinking about sustainability as like, you know, some

like, mountaintop removal in Appalachia which is like, of course horrible.

But thinking about like, what ways does, do my own daily life

does like, the institution I;m a part of, like, participate in that,

like, you know, in the global energy system.

So if I see a current running through activism on campus now

it's really like, bringing those issues alive to our place in, in Middletown.

>> Yeah, I think that's, it's a, it's a great point.

I know that I feel pressure from students when the

issue is like, not just about climate change in general.

But what is Wesleyan's participation in

the forces that create more climate change.

[LAUGH] And are we investing in

companies, for example, that you know, are promoting

to more climate change in the negative sense.

And are we providing enough financial aid for students so it's less,

you know, are we being exclusionary in the wrong ways, you know?

And are we discriminating anyway. And I, I feel that student activism, you

know, which comes to, comes to me or at me is often at this table, sometimes, right.

Is often about justice for janitors, and making

sure that we were paying people a living wage.

And that's an ongoing discussion, you know?

And, but I, I do feel that student activism is, it's local

whether it's, you know, the custodians who work here or our own

investments in, in companies, but they're also related to these systemic problems

which I guess you, you are studying in your classes as well.

>> And I think, for me, is it that's a very

big question where whether or not is the

individual taking part in what we are fighting against.

I have like, the big question is, even if I don't

actually take part, is it then getting rid of the problem?

>> Yeah.

>> So, so, particularly and how I by myself might go green and I might try.

And my, my own means to kind of, make sure I'm necessarily contributing to kind of

the mission of cognizance and so forth. But does it actually make a difference?

And, in the larger scheme can a, can a collective of individuals maybe who, who,

who, who someone acknowledge the problem within

the Western community actually make an effective change?

And for me, it's kind of just like I can, I can maybe myself, acknowledge that

oh, I might necessarily be a racist, I

might myself of not necessarily be a sexist.

However, is it dealing with the, with the issue in

itself, and, in its systematic sense because racism is not like

it's just not like purely on the individual but it's systematic.

As me being active, I'm always acknowledgement

of my own part with the [INAUDIBLE]

but however I still want to deal with, with the structure itself and that's why.

>> You're a systems and structures guy.

>> Yeah, exactly.

>> A few of our Wesleyan faculty

actually who participated in this class talked

about with some hope, I think, rather

than, let's say, just evidence, that the individual

actions get you to a tipping point, where, you know, it becomes 2%, 3%.

But if it gets to 10%, then suddenly you have an acceleration of change.

And, you know, and whether it's around climate

change or inequality or racism and sexism that

these are that we hope to create through

education, tipping points to make a positive difference.

So I want to thank you for participating in this conversation.

Thanks for being part of Wesleyan's

effort to share some of the stuff we know with the wider world.

Thanks very much.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

Well here we are in the final week of our class

and had a good conversation with a group of Wesleyan students and

I hope you have found the talks we've had with the

faculty from Wesleyan and from experts in different parts of the world.

I hope you have found those helpful and interesting.

I told you when we started the course, that the odd thing for

me in, in this endeavor was that I'm not an expert in any

of the fields, and I've been I would be learning along with you.

And that's very much the case.

[LAUGH] I'm not, still not an expert in the field, but I have learnt a lot

by talking with people who have devoted their lives to

working for positive change in regard to global warming, or eradicating

poverty, or education and social change, or gender issues

or other things that we've discussed in this class.

And so I, I feel that my awareness as a cultural commons

is, as some of you talked about on the discussion boards early

on in the, in the course that my awareness has expanded and,

and thanks to working with you and I am grateful for this opportunity.

There were some themes in the course that, that I thought I'd just remind

us of here as we bring things to a close and one that came up again and

again is the, is the, the relationship of the local and the global.

We found activists who were very concerned with making sure

that we had grassroots connection, or organic

connection with communities in need, and not imposing our views

on them, on whoever that we were trying to help.

And this is true in almost every week's reading, and,

and and you heard the students talking about their own activism.

I would ask them about a big global issue, and they would often come back

to what they're doing in Middletown, what

they're doing right here in their own backyards.

We also talked a lot about

the individual and the common.

I, I suppose more about the common than the individual, but how

you as individuals or individuals linked together in a network, to go

back to Yochai Benkler's work from the first week of the class,

how individuals in a network can begin to work with a common purpose.

So individuality needn't be confining, it can lead to a common purpose,

to solidarity.

And solidarity creates a ground foundation for positive change.

Another tension and that I, I, I've seen

throughout the semester, or I should say throughout

the course, [LAUGH] not quite a semester in

our case is between the particular and the universal.

Lots of us have talked about being grounded in the local.

Lots of us have talked about being

attentive to the grassroots, issues in, in any a, a number of cases.

But we have to remember, I think, the lessons from Amartya Sen and

Martha Nussbaum and others about the importance

of establishing some set of common standards.

Through which we can instigate cultural change.

We saw that most particularly in the

areas of gender violence, gender discrimination the

missing women.

And the capabilities approach does argue for could I call it a

soft universalism, or at least a, a, a quest for values that we can

share that cut across the boundaries that often divide us?

and, and finally I, I think if I could put

it this way that, that we see a, a tension between

a pessimism and optimism.

I mean, I'm, I'm reading Elizabeth Kolbert, or the

National Science Foundation's studies of global warming, or the

work on poverty in in, that seems intractable in

certain parts of the globe, and it's really depressing, right?

Gender violence in South Asia or in here in the

United States which be, which it seems extremely daunting, right?

And the

reasons for pessimism are there when we look at these global challenges.

But we also see throughout the class

examples where optimism, hopeful action, is actually successful.

It's not just starry-eyed optimism, it's not just naivete.

It's optimism grounded in education. And I hope you'll find from the videos

in this class, from the reading, and from other things, from, from one

another when you connect to each other online and elsewhere, I hope you'll find

reasons for optimism, because we can make, and we have examples of people making

every day a positive difference, even in the face of these global challenges.

We can't remake the world in a short

period of time, but we can change the world.

And we can change

it for the better, based on education, based

on concern, and based on values that we share.

I hope you've learned a lot.

I know I have.

Thank your for participating in this class.

I, I hope I see you again either in a Coursera

class, or somewhere else online, or even in the physical world.

Thanks for being part of How to Change the World.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

Listening to the Local and Practical Idealism

How to Change the World

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