Education is Liberation

by Susan Andrews, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I have to say before I begin telling about myself that my life as a young American woman is not like most. The country in which I live has made sure that its general population will never see the faults which limit those of us who are not rich, white, and male. Our government uses public schools to instill blind loyalty to the patriarchy in all who go to be educated. Capitalism sets up a barricade through which only their systems will be accepted. It comes at us from all sides, in our media, our schools, even from the people who influence us, because they are subject to it as well. It infuriates me to see all of this oppression which we force on ourselves and each other, and it seems nearly impossible to fight. But remember, the operative word is 'nearly.'

This is where I come in. I am not trying to tell you that I am exempt from everything I just wrote about. No one who lives here can avoid something which has so much power as our government. However, I am one of the lucky few who have been given the opportunity to learn how to fight back, to take myself back from things that hurt me, to be analytical of everything I see. I have broken away from what was trying to break me. I suffered through ten years of public schooling, learning not about myself as a woman and a person, but of men and their accomplishments, not about other cultures and their endless contributions to this world, but of the assumption that whiteness is next to godliness, not about how to cultivate, love, and protect relationships with other women, but to see them as competition and to find a man to support me at the expense of my pride, self-esteem, and ability to see change, let alone accept it. Needless to say, I am bitter. But in my negative feelings towards these things lies the most positive and powerful goal I could ever hope to have: I will end this. I will do anything it takes to reclaim the power that has been so violently stolen from women throughout time. We will have the respect we deserve and the equality we need. In order to do this we must band together, all cultures, every woman. We must realize that we are all being oppressed and that it does not have to be like this. We are not here for men, to provide pleasure, to provide food, to provide cheap labor, to be used and thrown away.

We are here for ourselves. When I see a woman doing something positive like educating herself, I celebrate because whether she knows it or not, she's helping us all. When I see a woman doing something negative, like starving herself, I grieve because she is hurting us all by giving into what men want. What saddens me most is watching women oppress other women, because that hurts them more than anything. I want to cry each time I hear a woman insult another one of us about something trivial like appearance, or worse, use the word 'bitch' because that word used to be ours and knowing that makes it difficult to hear it used negatively.

Where I live, and in all places which emulate American culture, and there are many, these are not popular opinions (because how dare we speak against the patriarchy?). They are also not based on what little I learned in my first ten years of school, but on the horrid experience of it. No, I have learned more in the last year and a half than I have in my close to seventeen years alive. My education now comes from Loring Nicollet Alternative School, where I am one of forty-five motivated and informed students. Here is an excerpt from our mission statement:

"The objective of Loring Nicollet Alternative School is to empower high school students to become more aware of who they are and what they need to reach their goals. The most successful environment for students is one that is safe and validates their experiences. The foundation for this environment at Loring Nicollet consists of: respect for individuality, a multi-cultural and gender fair curriculum, an informal atmosphere, participatory democracy, open communication, trust, honesty, values clarification, spiritual growth, self-discipline, the balance between group and individual responsibility, and decision making."

It is my personal (and unfortunately, biased) opinion that if all schools were to teach people about themselves and how they relate to the world around them, as well as how the world relates to them, we would be less divided and more empathetic. Learning and believing everything which comes from one source and one perspective is how bigotry is formed. And when that source has nothing left to give, people stop learning and accepting new things. We need pluralism. Everything is constantly changing, especially ourselves. Accepting that means that you will never stop learning. You will be interested in the changes around you and in yourself. And you will be more likely to cause change in the things which limit your growth and your fellow people's growth. Your internal revolution is the key to universal understanding. Question everything, especially yourself. Question this piece which you have read. Live your life so that it benefits you, your billions of sisters, and the rest of the world. You have the most powerful force behind you, the strongest support. You are a woman.

Hello, my name is Susan Andrews, I live in Minneapolis, MN, and I am an avid, harcore feminist. I lived in Moscow for the month of August, and it was really upsetting for me to see the lack of feminist influence while there. One of my few comforts was seeing a statue of a woman a precious few times. After visiting the Russian Feminist Resources web page, I feel stupid for not being able to find what I wanted, but I also can't help wondering if this was because feminism is sort of an underground movement in Russia. When I found your link on the web site, I decided that I needed to try and get involved or at least get some information on your organization. You see, I'm 16 years old, and am looking for vehicles for what I would like to do after high school. By the way, the high school I attend is an alternative one, is very small, and has a strong emphasis on women's studies and human rights, which would explain why I am interested in this. Since visiting Russia, it has become sort of a passion of mine to begin or make myself a part of the feminist movement that is there. The blatant exploitation and mistreatment of women which was so obvious has caused me to want to express my feminist activism there as well as here. My plan of action post-high school is to attend Sarah Lawrence College (which I'm sure you know is in New York) for half of my college education, and to spend the other half studying in Moscow. Since I am interested in the Russian language, writing/journalism, and feminist studies, your publication seems like a perfect thing for me to get involved with. I would love some tips, some advice, anything you can offer me. I hope to hear from you. Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Susan Andrews

First of all, I'm thrilled that you liked my piece, and honored to be published. It's been a goal of mine for the past few years, and the fact that it is coming true means a lot to me and is giving me much confidence. On the subject of my school, there's a lot to say. It was started about 27 years ago, and originally was meant for boys coming out of juvenile detention and the like. Soon after it began, however, both women and men were accepted to it. The school itself is a member of the Minneapolis Federation of Alternative Schools, which is associated with public schools. You would never know this from the things which we learn, though. An example of a week's worth of education consists of math, which is done at one's own pace. There is a teacher in the room who will help if needed, but there are no set tests or homework assignments (there is never any homework in any class). If someone doesn't need math credits anymore, they can either do independent study or come to school an hour late, as math is first thing in the morning (9:00). We have two group classes which meet every other day during a trimester. The first is People Class, which is like health class, except we learn about our bodies, safe sex and STDs, pregnancy, gender stereotypes, sex specifics, the effects of pornography, prostitution, sexual abuse, rape, and other topics such as those. We have guest speakers and learn from readings by Andrea Dworkin, Margaret Sanger, and lots of others. Intermittently throughout the tri, we have men's and women's classes, during which all of the females and males have a class with only women teachers and only male teachers. This is a time for us to speak about body image, our goals and how we feel they are being limited, how we can accomplish them, and so on.

There is much more, but it would be too long. The second group class is called The End class, and it is about education. We learn about cultural etiquette, about what we want for ourselves, why people drop out of school, what makes a good school, the function of education, oppression, racism, drugs, alcohol, etc. An example of another class at Loring Nicollet is my most recent English class, which was about colonialism in the Carribbean. We read from Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid, and I wrote a paper about the differences in the matriarchy in Haiti and America. That's a brief summary of education at my school. The cultural and gender mix is diverse. We have mostly Hmong, Black, and white students. I think at this point we have more women than men, and the school can sometimes be so matrifocal that we have to encourage the men to speak up, which I suppose isn't really a good thing, but it does happen. There is no cost to go to Loring Nicollet. We have a very strong community which we cultivate by having school meetings once a week, camping trips, overnights, and things like that. I feel like I'm leaving something out, but i'm not really sure what. I just found out that I'm going back to Moscow in either July or August, and I would be interested in meeting some of the people who make this magazine happen. I'll send you a picture soon.

Have a wonderful New Year. Later, Susan