An Intro to my Journey
My name is Mollie, and I am going into my fourth year at Trent. I am majoring in Politics and History, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. If I were to have one take away from everything that I have learned at my time at Trent is the importance of recognizing human agency in every situation. Through retellings of history, the “winners” who get to write the story often relegate the agency of anyone deemed to be a “victim” or who is otherwise seen as an “other “. However, repeatedly, humans show their capacity to resist, hope for the future and control their present.
Human agency does not always have to be a good thing, and I have also learned that humans repeatedly make choices to make life worse for other humans. Throughout history and the present people have manipulated situations in order to create epidemics, famines, genocides, and wars. In each of these cases, people have taken the existing situation and actively chosen to make it worse, particularly through targeting a specific group which they deem to be “other”.
The importance of recognizing agency is giving humanity back to individuals often deemed to be victims, and thus have the stories of their experiences and who they are homogenized, with their individuality and humanity removed. Agency also gives a place for hope. If all humans have agency and choices, we can attempt to make good choices and avoid becoming involved in political movements which aim to harm.
A particular interest that I have developed though my time at Trent is in how we educate children on history, and to what ends their lessons are directed towards. While children do have agency, and it is very important to recognize this, they have significantly reduced capacity. This is in two ways. Firstly, children are dependent on adults for their basic needs, and thus their capacity for resistance against the adults in their lives providing care is significantly reduced. Additionally, children have had less life experiences, and know less information than most adults. This means that they are less able to fact check what they are told, particularly if they are told this information from a “trusted adult”, in particular a teacher. As such, the way in which children are educated, and the types of information that they are provided with is instrumental in shaping their world view, and how they will act. Additionally, the way in which society chooses to teach children is a reflection of greater societal beliefs. If there is an emphasis on military history in schools, the society is likely militarized, or preparing for conflict. In contrast, if there is a focus on historical mistakes, then there is likely a focus in society of taking responsibility for wrongs, and recognizing the non-positive, and non-nationalism stirring aspects of the nation’s past. As such, the content within children’s lessons is a reflection of what society is, and what they want to be.
Education is always political, and Trent’s education has been no exemption. As a small liberal arts university, many of the class topics have been oriented towards challenging a status quo. In particular, within the politics department there is an outsized influence of critical theories, socialist beliefs, and feminist theories. This is in comparison to other universities which tend to focus more on classical theories such as realism or liberalism. Additionally, within the history department in the classes I selected there was always a focus on looking for the more “hidden histories”. For example examining the non-German-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, women in war, or the Vietnamese perspective during the Vietnam war. While all of these groups have received study, they do not form an essential part of the major narrative in public history of these events.
This focus on the non-mainstream political theorists or historical characters was to me a massive benefit to Trent. This type of examination is unique, and not information that I would have successfully found outside of these classes. Learning these non-mainstream facts and ways of thinking was incredibly important to my understanding of the world, and viewing these non-mainstream ideas has allowed me to see the difference between my education in university, and what the mainstream is that is being taught to children in schools or through the media.
I believe that my university experience was most beneficial in the way that it provided me the tools to challenge ideas and stated narratives about the world. While this learning and obtaining these tools is a continual process throughout life, I believe that my experience through university is the first step on this journey.
