Nightmares are not dreams

It is usual that one's dreams (when asleep) are a reflection of what is going on in our minds and hearts. Many times our dreams are relief valves for our anxiety and will subjectively have a meaning related to our subconscious world. Of course the interpretation of these dreams has been a source for millennia of speculation and more recently of hundreds of books. But I want to focus on the dreams we have when we are awake. Even though I could share some interesting dreams I have when I am asleep, like when I dream of flying, or the nightmare of seeing myself working where I used to work and having the feeling of being stuck; but that will have to wait for a future blog.
Going back to day dreaming, to think about having aspirations. I have to differentiate between aspirations that are possible, accessible, and desirable to those that even though they may be highly desirable they are -at least for the time being- out of reach.

Focusing on things that are possible and that I would like to see I happening during my lifetime I would have to rely on things that I have been doing lately. One thing that I have been doing is teaching. Currently I teach at a small college; a Christ-centered, liberal arts, urban college serving a diverse community. Like many liberal-arts college, our college is facing many challenges. Some of these challenges are related to the role of higher education in our society, the value of education as is evaluated based on the applicability of the degree to society. In some cases the applicability is related to the dollar amount that the graduate receives as yearly salary.

Thinking about my teaching I dream about an environment that is trusting and supportive. An environment that supports creativity at all levels and protects all academic activities of professorship. I dream of a society that has education as a high priority, a society that thinks of education as a great investment, that knows that the only way to have a healthy-democratic society is by having an educated citizenry. The society in my dream will reflect these values in the way in which we spend our tax dollars.

Is this dream truly possible? Is this dream possible by the action of one individual? What kind of steps do I have to take in order to make this dream a reality?