What Higher Ed Can Learn From Nelson Mandela Turning Robben Island Prison Into the "University of the Struggle"

By Cathy Davidson. It seems trite and presumptuous to try to add anything to the cornucopia of praise for one of the world's greatest leaders, thinkers, activists, heroes, Nelson Mandela. And yet not to take his passing as an injunction to all of us to work on behalf of justice seems the grossest disrespect. His passing marks both a terrible loss and an insistent reminder that others must take up the challenges set by his greatness, in however modest, simple, imperfect, limited, and partial a way. Not everyone can be a hero. Everyone can be inspired by a model of heroism and, in turning inspiration to some real action in the world, pay tribute and pay that legacy forward. In watching and reading so much that has come out in the last twenty-four hours about Nelson Mandela, one thing that particularly strikes me is how much faith he placed in the importance of education. 
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."  I am inspired by the fact that, spending twenty-seven years (TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS!) in Robben Island Prison, much of that breaking rocks by hand in a quarry or being isolated in solitary confinement, he insisted on the importance of this time, this place, these people. He called it “The University of the Struggle.” More...