Speaking to students about his views on education, Henry Giroux calls schools ‘sites of struggle’
Henry Giroux of McMaster University spoke about Neoliberal Violence in the Age of Orwellian Nightmares at George Brown College’s 23rd Annual Labour Fair. Photo courtesy of Henry Giroux.
Education is a right, not an entitlement. That was the theme of Henry Giroux’s talk at the George Brown College (GBC) Labour Fair.
On March 25 students, faculty and the public packed into a crowded lecture hall at the St. James campus to hear the McMaster University chair for scholarship in the public interest, Henry Giroux, speak about Neoliberal Violence in the Age of Orwellian Nightmares.
For those unfamiliar with obscure British novelists, Orwell was the author of 1984, a famous book that talks about the idea of a future dystopian society. The novel was published in 1949, with the title referring to the then far-off year in which it is set.
Expanding on the theme of his talk, Giroux spoke about how academia is a historic conjunction, and talked starkly about the possibility of a dark future.
He spoke about the concept of a neoliberalism, acknowledging that it’s difficult to talk about any problem without discussing it. Populated by a floating, financial elite that has no care for the nation-state, as ruthless, unwilling to make social concessions and no longer believes in social investments.
To Giroux, education is a social investment.
In this context, he argued passionately that student debt needs to be forgiven, and that education is a public good. To paraphrase Giroux, the culture of business is not the culture of education, calling schools “sites of struggle.”
Giroux spoke about how GBC is a unique post-secondary environment, one where theory discussed in the classroom does not remain abstract, but is translated into practice.
His speech received wave after wave of applause from the packed room, and this was not Giroux’s first time speaking at GBC.
He himself admits that his writings are “prolific,” and even a cursory glance at his website shows the descriptive word “prolific” to be a bit of an understatement when applied to his collected body of work.
According to his website, Giroux has written over 50 books and has edited nine more. Academic books are often penned by various authors, each contributing a chapter. Over time, Giroux has contributed a total of 212 chapters.
His work is not limited to books, as Giroux has published 431 articles in various academic journals. Throughout his writing career he has also edited seven special issues of journals, as well as written four monographs.
