Cathy N. Davidson presents a clear and practically way to reshape the higher educational system with several different mythologies and practices. Throughout the book all of the ways in which we can reimagine Charles Eliot’s “New Education” are very possible and should be mandatory in order to ensure students growth in career development and life. I resonated with two different practices Davidson offers to readers: bridging the gap between social media and education and the Red House.
With the rise of social media and “fake news” many scholars turned to social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to broaden and educate their audience of the harmful impact of “fake news” and the Trump Administration. Davidson uses Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom as an example of using social media as a source to help others understand more about the daily politics that effect all of us.
“She is one of the most persuasive activists on what is sometimes called #BlackTwitter, a loose network of public intellectuals who use of Twitter to give issues important to African Americans more visibility and intellectual and political left than they receive in traditional media.” (Davidson 126)
This made me think of the potential of using social media as a source to have academics, students, scholars, etc. share information to people in places where they do not have access to this information. With more people on social media, could we make social media a new hub for education? Can we make Twitter (for example) a place where people can go to learn more about Black feminism? For me personally, Twitter and other social media has been that for me because I actively looked for it. But can we make it place where people can stumble across it and learn more than ever before?
The second practice came from the students at the Red House at Georgetown University. The Red House reminded me of an intentional community at my undergraduate university called the Vincent and Louise House (V&L). At the V&L House students could gather with other students and receive a free meal, listen to guest speakers, learn to budget their money, learn more about activism, gain an understanding about different policies that were being added and removed in Chicago, and so much more. There, in this house, I learned a lot more about my environment and prepared me more for the “real world.” If more colleges had the Red House or V&L could it be a safe space to open the doors for students to learn how we can survive after college? Could this be an alternative to learning those crucial aspects of life outside of the classroom?
Both practices show how together as peers, colleagues, community members, and global citizens, how we can all learn from one another.