Karli Merson

Higher Education Building, Chesapeake College

IDC- 201: Nature of Knowledge
Dr. Deanna Reinard
February 18th, 2023

Schooling the World Reflection

I was deeply saddened watching Carol Black's documentary "Schooling the world." Once

again, the western and white colonies of the world have taken a culture and stripped away its

uniqueness by taking the culture out of the elder's hands and into the schools. It is forgotten and

thrown away because "it does not fit in with the changing world." Then with western

culturalization, the young people of India began to succumb to that loss of culture not only

through teachings but through toys, clothes, and attitude, including rebelling against their culture

as it has now been deemed "poor." Although, when looking at the bigger picture, it was easy to

see that poverty was now set by the western culture, as we could see that the untouched parts of

India were clean of corruption. Though they did not have fancy houses with expensive clothes

and cool cars, their unique traditions were still intact, along with their clothing, work in the

fields, and togetherness as a community and spirituality.

The schools the children worked in felt like what we have in America, with the 7-hour

days and their primary classes like language, math, and science. To the Western world's system,

it was to help the nation become more prepared for the developing world. Then these children

will be able to grow up and have a higher chance of success. However, there are not enough jobs

for these giant waves of now "highly educated" workers, which makes most of these students

destined to fail. Those who do make it into the workforce will become cogs of the machine to
power the elites who wanted these schools. Schools of the western culture say they want to

"share this amazing knowledge," but if that were the case, then you do not have to destroy an

entire culture to do so! To learn should be something that will only aid, not destroy.

The hardest part of watching this documentary was that these students would never be

able to return to the culture they were taken from. Many of the students in the video were excited

by the ideas that education brings. To them, their future seems bright, where they could be

anything they wanted to be. Then you see the older students/ graduates, and all they can say is

how they feel wronged. They feel like they have lost one of their essential parts: their own

history. I would not blame them if they were angry, they are victims of cultural oppression, and

there is no way they can get that back. They had been lied to for years, and now they have to

suffer immeasurable consequences for something that is not even their fault.

As an American, I know what that kind of schooling looks like, and I know how

miserable it can make you feel, but I will never understand their loss. It makes me feel angry and

sick as a future educator because no one should have to go through anything like that. However,

all countries and cultures worldwide do, and all I can do is learn from it and try to be better. I

want to be better for my students. I want to celebrate every single thing that makes them

different. I want to honor them, their parents, and their ancestors because they deserve to know

that their unique qualities are the best in the world, and I want them to feel loved for who they

are.