"What we are faced with are mechanisms that aim to discipline society by disciplining each of its inhabitants. This results in a society as a collection of individuals, a multiplicity of subjects that can be ordered, numbered, and supervised...
'[w]hat is perceived as being worthwhile in education, and what is perceived as quality education, are being imposed...from outside the traditional educational institutions' This is to say, in part, that we are deluded in our notions of 'good' (rational) and 'wrong' choices, and that the way we choose is subtly directed in some way...We are not only or simply confronted with our freedom to choose; this freedom is imposed upon us, and we are expected to see our lives as 'the making of choices'...We cannot choose what we choose, neither that we choose (to choose)...
...The popular and concrete idea of lifelong learning incorporates mechanisms that discipline and therefore normalize people instead of emancipating them. The orientation towards the market ensures that specific economic needs will be fulfilled...The resulting normalization provides society, not so much with well-educated, liberated persons but rather with inter- and exchangeable units...And it becomes easy to manipulate the needs, interests, and choices...And again the irony is that the individual--as an entrepreneur--will keep on developing and updating her competences, in order to be wanted.
This being wanted as a unit in contemporary society differs strongly from being respected as the person you are.
...Suppose lifelong education is more than the provision of skill modules, freedom to choose and switch. Could it be?...
Respect is equated with obtained certificates, recognition is levelled to acquired grades. This installs an enduring 'hunger' to 'learn' more, and the subtle coercion upon those who are endangered to fall by the wayside, to jump on the carousel. As such, it has become a part of the human condition to be frustrated for the things one cannot realize, and to try to distinguish oneself fruitlessly from the uniformed, grey mass of 'autonomous learning entrepreneurs.' Is this constant striving, and the expansion of one's certification collection, what counts most? Is this what makes us think of those whom we respected most? Obviously not the skills of the other but the person she is, is what impresses us, what sticks in our memory. If so, this might have to do with finding and sharing meaning, with developing a personal stance, with creativity, with wisdom, with being captivated and interested, with joy and with being content, with taking time for oneself and the other, and with caring for oneself and the other.
Education then...means to be a live example, or to encourage learners to find one. It means addressing them in a way that stimulates exploring their own ideas and wants. This too is learning for life--a continuous process that in the end may be very worthwhile.
The word "education" derives from the Latin educare, meaning "to nourish"
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