Just recently church has spread the info that studying abroad is a bad thing to do. The reasons are plenty, for example " a 16-19 year-old young person is very sensitive towards the his/her environment, he/she is still unprepared. This is why it is dangerous to live abroad. There have been cases of psychological diseases" and " God has created you in Georgia and this is why you should live in Georgia"1.
I am not even going to refute this arguments, they are self- refutable in their essence. That was just the example of the logic why should Georgians stay where they are and never evolve professionally, psychologically, or culturally. I would like to address more tangible issue: one does not need to leave the country to study well. While I believe that this statement is partially true and that indeed, our country has many specialists that have never left their homes, this claim is not valid for the most of the students.
I have studied in two universities, Georgian and American. Both had flaws, but in the Georgian university, I felt more and more powerless with every semester. From inability to control what subjects I need to pass to get a diploma ( I had a B.A. from a university in America. Why the hell did I need to pass a test in English language in Georgia?!) to everyday classroom situations. For example, classes often started late. Or, we couldn't choose our classes. Or we did not have any textbooks in Georgian. So yes, I wanted to learn, and yes, I did all I could, and yes, I had great teachers, and but to this day I keep wondering, how much more would I have gotten out of it. Thus, when people try to feed me bullshit about how good our universities are, I just want to yell at them. Hello! Wake up! Isn't this all around us the result of our education?! Do we like what we see?! No?! Then why should we stay and keep repeating the same mistakes?! OR ARE WE JUST AFRAID TO GET EDUCATED, OPEN-MINDED AND CRITICALLY THINKING YOUTH? Is that it?! Then cut the crap about "cases of psychological diseases" and admit that we want a theocratic society! That would make us what, honest? At least, in that case, the likes of me will shut up and run far, far away from this country.
1. Tsitskishvili, D. Father. "Two Thoughts". Liberali. October 11-17th, 2010. pg. 8.
i think that they are afraid of a liberal and open-minded society.
ReplyDeleteHard to comment, i havent heard the speach itself, i really want to know what was the main idea of it. I guess exaclty abroad you become more Georgian and act as a Georgian, rather in your own country. I mean I dont even want to argue what benefits can one get in studying abroad, it is silly itself. Its "truizm that it is good" as we would say. So the only question is WHY? I really want to know, why we should forbid young people study in better environment.
ReplyDeleteOk, first of all the reason why religious figures created the buzz about this whole abroad-education topic is that they don't want youngsters to as they say degrade spiritually. Kids in mid-teen ages their faith is still developing, so by them going abroad and studying, which obviously involves adapting various culture habits, religious authorities are just afraid that they can lose their "faith-slaves" that's it.
ReplyDeleteI remember when i was going to US my mom (who is pseudo-Christian/fanatic) asked her priest and got the same answer, he said: "she has to be very cautious of the non-believers" or something of that kind.
About the education system itself, i think it's funny to think that the institutions are non-bureaucratic or more liberal. Yes, there has been a rapid change after the rose revolution, but it certainly doesn't mean we have the best institutions or even fairly good ones. If you ask me they're all just same shit quality.
It does not matter why is the church making these statements. The most important thing is that no one, I mean no one except the people like you could react on this.
ReplyDeleteReact on this how? By me writing this on my unimportant blog that only people of the similar mindset read? By running away from here? By saying that church is becoming more and more controlling? How much power do we really have?
ReplyDeleteThe power we have is power of argument. You make your argument because you want to. Others don't even think about it.
ReplyDeletethat's the problem and that's why church can get all its influence
ReplyDeletejust wanted to make clear: i never intended to sound as if i had the best grades in my university, i never implied that i am smarter or more successful than others, and i am sorry if i have offended people who have studied with me.
ReplyDeletei still feel like the TSU did nothing for us and if it were not for Tamriko Gagoshidze, we wouldn't have gotten any knowledge. thus, i can say that i've graduated from Tamriko Gagoshidze university and not from TSU.