Seminary Surveillance

I complained to my US seminary once about “surveillance”. I put it like this: “In my European and African theological education, the focus tended to be on the subject matter at hand. By way of contrast, many US assignments require “your view”, “your understanding”, and so on. In East Germany, they asked children to describe “your TV test pattern”. While requests for “your” perspective offer a welcome opportunity for self-expression and creativity, I ask myself what, from the student's point of view, would distinguish this from surveillance. I come to the conclusion that I do not find anything that would.” OBSERVATION: Not to speak of other forms of surveillance, which there were. One had to give one's consent to Internet surveillance, and surveillance on campus was obvious, with cameras at every turn.