Ken,
I agree that it's important to keep in mind the consequences of
rabble-rousing. We *can* put students in very real binds that have very
real consequences for *them* if we promote radical ideas that society in
general won't accept.
OK. but then we should proceed to rouse the rabble anyway. I mean, how do
we ever effect change if we defer action to addressing this big,
amorphous *society* that is somehow Out There and No Where at the same
time. We forget that society R us, that our students are society.
Changing it means changing us & changing them. The Rest of Society may
come along slowly or quickly or not at all, but one thing's for sure, if
we look without and not within and around, society's dominant threads of
belief remain safe and secure.
So students should be thoroughly apprised of the very real risks, then
they should be invited to join the conversations and critiques of
society's norms. We're not helping them, ultimately, by protecting them.
If they are powerless, it's because the system we want to critique makes
them so. knowledge and participation may be better keys to power than
safe haven from radical ideas.
--Eric Crump