{"id":11813,"date":"2012-12-27T21:31:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T02:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=11813"},"modified":"2012-12-27T21:31:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T02:31:37","slug":"les-miserables-the-college-parody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/12\/les-miserables-the-college-parody.html","title":{"rendered":"Les Mis\u00e9rables: The College Parody"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Via Inside Higher Ed<\/a>, I discovered this parody<\/a> of\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables which depicts instead the despair not of young revolutionaries in France in a bygone era, but young graduates in the present day:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nI think the video simultaneously makes a useful point, and undermines it, illustrating in the process what education is really for.<\/p>\nOn the one hand, many students go to university anticipating that it will all but guarantee them a certain type of job or standard of living. It doesn\u2019t. And it never has.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvQgFigzPnjZTaTB2-lH3sUV7nW_vwzG___BnXKtMp1PBeY48L-Q\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"108\">But it does offer a kind of experience and exposure to the breadth and richness of human creativity, that it fairly consistently enables students both to find creative ways to adapt to the challenges of real life, and to find enjoyment, appreciation, meaning, and comfort in that life.<\/p>\nThe video is a case in point. The group of students at Boston University who made it found a way of expressing themselves, of creating a work of art that is communicating their disappointment and concern to a wider audience.<\/p>\nI wonder in what ways their education enabled them to appreciate\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables, to connect it to their own experience, and to find a creative way of reenacting it. And I think that this illustrates one of the many ways that education fosters creativity on the one hand, and provides skills for coping with the challenges life throws at us on the other. Turning our story into song, drama, and\/or video is one of the ways we do that.<\/p>\nOf course, there is also grad school, and so I leave you with these cartoons which are among <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phdcomics.com\/comics\/archive.php?comicid=1543\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">several<\/a>\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables parodies created by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phdcomics.com\/comics\/archive.php?comicid=1544\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">PHD Comics<\/a>:<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.phdcomics.com\/comics\/archive\/phd121212s.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1200\"><\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.phdcomics.com\/comics\/archive\/phd122412s.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1200\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Via Inside Higher Ed, I discovered this parody of\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables which depicts instead the despair not of young revolutionaries in France in a bygone era, but young graduates in the present day: I think the video simultaneously makes a useful point, and undermines it, illustrating in the process what education is really for. On the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[2970,3053,4137,6491,6529,7755,7805,8739,11988,13175,13368],"class_list":["post-11813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-humor","tag-education","tag-employment","tag-graduation","tag-les-miserables","tag-liberal-arts","tag-movie","tag-musical","tag-parody","tag-students","tag-university","tag-victor-hugo"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Les Mis\u00e9rables: The College Parody<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Via Inside Higher Ed, I discovered this parody of\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables which depicts instead the despair not of young revolutionaries in France in a bygone era,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/12\/les-miserables-the-college-parody.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Les Mis\u00e9rables: The College Parody\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Via Inside Higher Ed, I discovered this parody of\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables which depicts instead the despair not of young revolutionaries in France in a bygone era,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/12\/les-miserables-the-college-parody.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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