Document Type
Contribution to Books
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
I would characterize my lifelong relationship with formal education as a kind of dissonant harmony. As a kid, part of me loved school, yet I would sometimes feel like I was being assimilated by regimented institutions of homogenization. Living "off the grid" with hippie parents was a stark contrast to the school environment of bright fluorescent lights, equidistant rows of desks, and tightly managed schedules. Today, the dissonance continues as I find myself at times upholding and perpetuating systems of conformity in education, while simultaneously trying to disrupt and subvert those systems in order to reveal and dismantle anything that could be inhumane or obsolete. Reconciliation is slow-going and messy. The pendulum swings a wide arc before settling in its consonant center.
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Publication Information
Nelson, Leif. (2021). "Confessions of a Subversive Student". In C. Friend (Ed.), Hybrid Teaching: Pedagogy, People, and Politics, (pp. 60-73). Hybrid Pedagogy Inc.