Week 1 - Regine Amparo - Section 3

The idea that education is used as a tool to create "domesticated working drones" (Dariotis & Valverde, 2013, pg. 9) is interesting. Despite the contemporary idea that education is a tool for liberation and expression for the betterment of society, the initial purpose of education was to socially engineer a society of like-minded people to be exploited for labor. While this is a disturbing thought, I cannot help but think that would society be better or worse without this social engineering. Society does need laborers to keep the society running. However, this consequently creates class hierarchies between those who have and do not have access to education, a determining factor in whether they will be acceptable workers or not. With such a vast population, I imagine it would be difficult to unify people to create a functioning society. The idea of creating "domesticated working drones" creates people with similar goals that unify them to work towards that goal.   

I question the very own education I am receiving as to whether my existence in university, the money I spend to receive this education, and my future participation in the work force perpetuates the already existing class hierarchy. The corporatization of universities makes the perpetuation almost inevitable. The willing participation of universities in keeping the class hierarchies are evident in the treatment of UC Davis students who protested against tuition hikes in the now referred to as the Pepper Spray Incident and Professor Valverde's battle with gaining tenure. Anyone who is deemed as going against the top is punished accordingly. Despite all of this, I still participate in this university system to receive an education to rank higher in class, which makes me believe this social engineering has become so deeply imbedded that it has become a cycle. Is there any way to escape this cycle and not rely on class hierarchies to survive in this society?

References
Valverde K. L. C. & Dariotis W. M. (2019). Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. Rutgers University Press. 
[Untitled image of stacked textbooks]. Retrieved from https://kdvs.org/new-economics-textbook/