Globalization vs. Cultural Identity
It's nice enough outside that the students are eating lunch in the "courtyard", and the boys who kept meeting mysteriously in the boy's bathroom between classes have found a new place under a tree to do whatever it is they've been doing (my first guess was drugs, but that's because I'm from the states, other teachers tell me that they just hang out and talk and fix their hair). It's lovely out here. Petals from the Sakura blossoms whirl around like thick snow flakes. It's so classically romantic it's almost sickening.
I was talking to one of my JTEs today about the high school text book revisions in Japan. Many friends from home have emailed me articles about the Ministry of Education's recent decision to order publishers to delete certain atrocities (committed by the Imperial Army during World War II) from high school text books.
I asked Fushitani-sensei, my supervisor, how she felt about it, and she said that "children want to learn the truth, but older Japanese people are afraid that the students will learn to hate Japan." She seemed to consider this fear unfounded but added, "It's difficult to know what the truth is." I couldn't agree more.
She didn't seem too disgruntled by the Ministry's decision, or maybe irrational national policy is becoming just as commonplace here as it is in the states, and complacency is seeping into these veins as well.
Aren't other atrocities of world history regarded as necessary education, in order to avoid repeating the tragic mistakes of the past? That's the fundamental duty of education. Learning from our mistakes separates us from other species.
I don't pretend to know much about Japanese Government, or world history for that matter, but isn't this kind of Nationalism obsolete in our modern world? We are in a position to reach out to people all around the globe and communicate in ways that promote intercultural understanding and education.
At the same time, however, there is something to be said for the preservation of ancient ritual and/or antiquated traditions that maintain the richness of the human experience. In Wade Davis' TED talk about the Ethnosphere (recently brought to the attention by Goat), he talks about how many languages are lost annually, and how many rich cultural identities are quickly becoming extinct.
How do we balance the potential of a world without borders with the necessity of maintaining our differences?
Just something I've been bouncing around and would be interested in hearing your thoughts about it.
(arriving to this question from the original topic is a bit of a stretch, but it's how my mind got there)
posted by Ashuri @ 9:01 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I'm a product of an education system that for years has been trying desperately to cling to it's distinct national heritage/identity in the form of compulsory Irish language education up to the age of 18. My Irish is piss poor to say the least which is saying something for someone who has chosen to make a career of teaching languages. I think the more we try to ram it down students' throats the more they'll rebel against it...and yet it's one of the main things that differentiates us from other native English speakers. Our history is wrapped up in the Irish language. It cannot be forgotten or ignored. The same goes for Japan. Their history should not be conveniently left out of a text book. To do so is irresponsible. The job of educators is to present such facts in a way that neither glorifies national pride to the point of fanaticism nor alienates other cultures. Who said teachers have it easy...?
It's seems to me (from a lot of the weird studying I did in CO) that part of the factor determining how open a culture (or a person) is to new cultural ideas is proportionate to how much one (both a culture and a person) can separate concepts of being "different idea" (i.e. no directly comparable value, just different) from being viewed as a "contradictory value". A difference in one value does not directly imply a inverse value. They're mutually exclusive, most of the time. One of the influencing factors for making that distinction may have to do with how broad of a scope of the world one associates oneself with (e.g. worldview).
If you view your widest scope to be your country's culture, anything outside of that boundary becomes sharply defined in relation to the boundary as an "other" (i.e. opposite). However, the broader the association, such as if you view yourself as part of a generation, (as well as a part of a culture), the greater the likelihood it is for one to make a distinction of actions of past-generations from the choices of the current. I.e. the atrocities from WWII can be separated from a judgement of the country as a whole. Just more information to convey.
It seems like with a wider scope, you have more deliniation between values and groups. And the more deliniation you have, the easier it is to view things a groups a comparative differences as opposed to inverse contradictions. "You are with us, or the terrorists". Tiny scope, two groups.
The elders in Japan can't separate the past atrocities from their thoughts of Japan as a whole. But the kids can.
The irony is that an understanding of the differences in detail (or understanding any culture or values) may be what widens people scope, and in turn helps them make more distinctions. It's a pity that information is being left out right now, due to people who can't make the distinction themselves. But it makes your job all the more significant.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there about how people's worldviews increase (this was a lot of what Integral Institute's research was on), but individual relationships may seem to help. The students are able to wrap their heads around larger concepts by associating with you as an example. If you were to view expanding worldviews like a cone opening upwards, some of I-I's research was on that the widest worldview sometimes works like a magnet pulling people up by association. So way to go. Living your life by example is very important and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.
Just a question, but how much time did you spend in Modern World History (11th grade for me) talking about Vietnam and the US's place in the war there? Even the Korean War?
People never want to admit their mistakes, especially a people as proud of themselves as Japan is. I think that for the most part, in America, we're taught to think different than everyone else and to form our own ideas and opinions. I think that Japan desperately does NOT want that for it's younger generation. They see it already happening and the loss of a blind nationalism is really reeking havoc to the older generation. They had it, so why shouldn't everyone else? They heard all the first hand stories of the atrocities that were committed against them during WWII, but very little of the ones they actually committed.
I don't think that's all that different from the way that things work in the states. The fredom of information and the internationalization that the internet gives us is amazing and folks in the US are embracing it with open arms, far more than what I see in most Japanese people at least.
As long as Oreos are globally available, who cares if we maintain differences?
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