Hopes and fears

"With her fluent Urdu tinged with a Punjabi accent, Zarmeen throws in several words from English as she says, “I had seen some educated people from the city. The way they spoke, the way they carried themselves – it made me want to be like them.” http://tribune.com.pk/story/412265/a-dream-fulfilled-college-gates-open-for-guards-daughter/#. The article published in Tribune is titled as A dream fulfilled. I read this article as a hope for them who strive hard and reach where they have dreamed to be, but on the other hand I fear about what we are doing in institutions like LUMS. What dreams are we giving to the new generation? To explain my fears I offer you to read Bourdieu’s arguments concerning cultural capital as he "vociferously challenged the widespread view of modern schooling as a mobility engine that promotes or demotes people through the class structure simply on the basis of their talents and efforts. Indeed, from Bourdieu’s highly critical vantage point, modern systems of schooling are far more adept at validating and augmenting cultural capital inherited from the family than they are at instilling it in children who enter the institution with few or none of the requisite dispositions and skills. Consequently, he maintained, the educational systems of modern societies tend to channel individuals towards class destinations that largely (but not wholly) mirror their class origins. Moreover, they tend to elicit acceptance of this outcome (i.e. legitimation), both from those who are most privileged by it and those who are disfavored by it" (Bourdieu & Passeron 1977 [1970]). I wish educational planners and policy makers may be able to realize what people like Bourdieu and Paulo Freire kept telling ...