Signing in the Global Classroom: The Millennials’ March towards Post-Culture and Institution, and a World that is Same (?)

Abstract

Pink Floyd, in their 1979 rock song, “Another Brick in the Wall”, claimed that we do not need education anymore, particularly the kind that makes us just another silent, rigid and featureless brick in the wall. The song created a massive stir; questioning the necessity of education, where assumedly, the teachers are the dictators and the students, slaves. Interestingly, the Millennials seem to have marched passed that era, and now are more flexible and individualized when it comes to receiving education and reaching academic milestones. The world is still a large classroom, like it always was; except for the fact that now the Window is an illuminating smart screen instead of a real one that provides with fresh air, charming views and foods for thought! Education is now widely accessible for all, from all corners of the world. The internet is like an external hard drive for human brain, and Google is, perhaps, replacing human memory. The developed nations still search for talents from the not-so-blessed ones, and the talents simply seek a better life! The advancements and achievements seem to be a success for the Millennials, as the “culture shock” gets reduced, thanks to the concept of Globalization (or Glocalization?), and the entire world seems to be following the same syllabus, and learning the same things! Are they learning the same things? Can they? Should they? Does putting the same contents as the “developed” world make teaching and learning the same for the “developing” or “under developed” ones? Or is it simply a new form of colonizing the minds by inserting the idea that the Western education is still the one to follow? The paper, thus, intends to find out the possible answers to the questions considering the cultural concept of education as well as its global perception and acceptability. The purpose is to find out if the current connected time of ours is a Global Classroom, or just a new web of conformity and conservation. Or is it simply the time to consider Žižek’s claim, that education, is indeed a lost cause? The paper will try to study the practice and representation of culture, race and socio-political issues of the Millennials’ view towards education, while keeping an eye on the projected alternatives and/or atrocities.