In this course we've considered the argument that it is difficult, if not impossible, to be a passive participant in any kind of social transformation. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

If our desire to change the status quo is to be realized, we must be active, independent thinkers who are capable of standing for something other than the received ideological narratives we've received through education. As Nobel Prize winning author Doris Lessing said, "We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination...[wherein what is being taught is] an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture."

We've also examined how globalization, as an economic force, can reinforce dependency on its system as the only way of doing business. In a similar way, as we've seen, the modern Western concept of education makes the assumption that its way is the only way of knowing, thereby creating subjects dependent on only one way of thinking about themselves and the world.

In a short essay (2 ½ - 3 pages) I'd like you to consider and explore the following questions:

How does the Western model of education, as part of a larger economic and cultural system, relate to the persistent problems that we face? Can we look honestly at the pros and cons of the Western model of education, and accept that when we export the good aspects of our society we will usually be exporting its bad aspects as well? Can we place our actions in a richer, more complex context, in order to try to understand their unanticipated consequences?

This assignment should be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman (or comparable) font.