“Students wrote about them as if they were embarking on a fruitful challenge: maxing out the total credits they could take, being involved in every club, not sleeping. They would reap the rewards of A’s today and impressive resumes later, the health of their bodies not even considered. Several months ago, I was doing the exact same thing.” – Chio in Stop the Glorification of Busy
In this article, Chio looks at the university system as a capitalist machine, forcing students to sacrifice their mental and physical health for the sake of their education all while convincing the world that this is normal, healthy, and desirable behavior. This system tends to be harshest on those who need validation, those who are nearly always structurally disadvantaged and inferior: women and people of color. The university system feeds off of our inferiority complexes and impostor syndromes; we overwork ourselves to make up for it and to be twice as good as the competition.
This is something I’ve definitely struggled with in college to the point that when I quit one of my jobs because I couldn’t handle two jobs and keep up my grades, I felt guilty. I felt like I was lazy and just wasn’t working hard enough. Interesting to compare the current American mindset to the Kung who could work only 23 days to produce 100 days of food. What do you guys think?
– Lindsay Cortright