The Modern Auschwitz

When I attend college, at times I feel like we are at Auschwitz. With the identification number, packed classrooms, loud commands/announcements voiced through the speakers, lecturers walking into classrooms like SS personnel, conditioned thinking and ideology being passed down to students, uniforms, students failing to raise their opinions etc. It might be an extreme point of view but at times, I do feel so.

But there are certain classes when the teacher refers to you by your name rather than your number. The teacher asks you for your opinion or view point before they voice their own. The teacher sees you for who you are. The teacher appreciates you and your talents and is not necessarily concerned whether you are good in their subject of expertise. Such classrooms feel like the ‘children's block’ described in the book, ‘the librarian of Auschwitz’, where books were viewed with the highest regard and information was passed on to children with a sense of reverence and fear. And the teachers remind me of the tattooist from the book, ‘tattooist of Auschwitz’, where although the tattooist is forced to follow the Nazi orders, he doesn't get side tracked by mere numbers and rather tries his best to see the person for who they are.

I might be seeing things from an extremely negative point of view, comparing a college to an Auschwitz camp is completely atrocious. But the level of stagnation at college caused me to board this train of thought.