Sharing this for the folks who are considering sending their kids abroad for studies.
There's a culture war going on and the world of western academia is increasingly getting out of touch with the people on the ground as well as with ground realities. (One hint: Ask people you know who were on American campuses in Nov 2016 what did they reckon was going to happen reg'd the elections there. Not their opinion, but their prediction of the outcome just prior to it based on everything around them ) And it doesn't help that the mainstream media as well as the dominant voices in corporates are egging it on. Some very basic principles of civilisation like nonviolence and tolerance for differences in opinion are being thrown out the window by people claiming to be standing up for them. I see it as a fulfilling of the warnings about the education system sounded by authors like John Gatto and people who have been calling out the corruption of institutions that take huge amounts of money in the name of something intangible.
And non-technical courses seem to be getting more into this. The consequence being that the student instead of being exposed to a much larger world as we hope for our wards, ends up being conscripted into a narrow world view and may even end up being used as cannon fodder in some people's pet causes. It may seem alien for us on this side of the world, with all that we have to put up with regarding religious extremism, right-wing jingoism etc, but even the liberal/left side can go overboard and do harm. Some keywords you can look up : identity politics, social justice warriors.
I don't have much ways of proving any this in an email as it's a long-term observation spanning some years now, but thought I'll share this video and maybe if you're interested you can do your own research on the subject. I also am noting this all as someone who was very much identifying with that group and professing the same views but now questioning some of the finer details. I also feel we might be seeing situations where the parents are very much in the liberal camp and are getting shocked to see their kids saying things like "Yes, there IS a difference between the genders." We could also meet up sometime and talk at length on this if there's interested folks in Pune.
Dear College Snowflakes, No One Takes You Seriously | Lafayette Response -Roaming Millennial, 2017-10-18
As always, this IS open to all varieties of interpretation.
PS: Also check out Milo's videos, and tell me if you'd like a copy of his book Dangerous : it's hilarious, totally counter-culture and great food for thought.
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