This was first published in D.i.Y.Culture #12

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“In Praise of Learning” by Bertolt Brecht

Study from bottom up,
for you who will take the leadership,
it is not too late!
Study the ABC; it is not enough.
but study it!
Do not become discouraged, begin! You must know everything!
You must prepare to take command,now!
Study, man in exile!
Study. man in the prison!
Study, wife in your kitchen!
Study, old-age pensioner!
You must prepare to take command now!
Locate yourself a school, homeless folk!
Go search some knowledge, you who freeze!
You who starve, reach for a book: it will be a weapon.
You must prepare to take command now.
Don’t be afraid to question, comrades!
Never believe on faith.
see for yourself!
What you yourself don’t learn
you don’t know.
Question the reckoning
you yourself must pay it
Set down your finger on each small item. asking:
where do you get this?
You must prepare to take command now!

Question Authority!

As hundreds of thousands of students head back to schools, colleges and universities, they should be made fully aware, that education has become a subject of rampant interest to global capital – big-business has moved in on property development for overpriced student rentals, on low-paid cleaning and catering services and on the students themselves through finance and massive, life-changing debt. Covid-19 has exacerbated all of these factors and exposed the diminishing quality of the ‘bums-on-seats’ education theory – from start to finish, it’s a production-line and at the moment, no institution can afford to turn down your 30 grand. Spend wisely.

Certain subjects, qualifications and institutions, are once again only for people from wealthy backgrounds. All this, willingly facilitated by greedy, obsolete Vice-Chancellors and Principals and Heads on hugely inflated pay packages and by compliant, lecturers, tutors and assorted box-tickers.

Education should be about learning, not churning out efficient functionaries and consumers. Like never before, students (at all levels), need to stop allowing themselves to be used as cash-cows for the education industry and start to question authority.