Yet at the moment when the nation needs quality teachers most, WashU has chosen to eliminate its teacher education program. In an August email, the Education Department at WashU informed students that, “due to ongoing challenges and budgetary constraints,” the department will be discontinuing its teacher education programs for students entering WashU in fall 2025 and beyond.

WashU’s College of Arts & Sciences is forming a new task force to consider the reorganization or combination of what are currently six separate departments: African and African American Studies (AFAS); Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS); Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES); Education; Global Studies; and American Culture Studies (AMCS). 

We were all kids once. We are still the same people we were back then, no matter how much our personalities, capabilities, and preferences have changed.

Rather than taking on one mindset or the other, we should take a balanced approach. Instead of striving to be exceptional at everything, we should pick and choose our battles. We can do our best to prioritize our studies and work, but not so much that we sacrifice the things that sustain and inspire us. Working hard should not come at the expense of learning and trying new things.

This February, the Association of Black Students (ABS) has a lineup of events centered around education and elevating Black students at WashU. From a Super Bowl watch party to a panel with Black law professionals, sophomore and ABS President Spencer Snipe hopes to engage the whole WashU community this month. 

Following the removal of authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the recent conflict between warring militaristic factions the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over control of Sudan has caused the deaths of over 12 thousand individuals. Additionally, the conflict has displaced more than 9 million others and remains a humanitarian crisis that threatens one of the world’s most politically complex regions. 

Then, I thought about the fact that less than a week from that day, I’d be feeling the same amount of exhaustion, only with the added stress of being a part of one of the most important elections of my lifetime.

We love to boast about the equality of American education, but this is a falsity that in a lot of ways is ignored.

The purpose of education is
not to confirm or “validate” your “identity” or feelings—you could do
that at home. It is to expose you to the broad range of human thought, to show you how different people and cultures have approached the fundamental questions of existence.

Making insensitive comments and isolating people can’t be justified by being “afraid” of catching the virus.