EDL 7030

The Tupper and Capello article brushes a theme I also saw in the article by Angelina Weenie (yes, I'm reading slightly out of order - sorry). Both the Tupper & Cappello article (on page 561) and the Weenie article (on page 553) draw attention to a well-intentioned move to teach Aboriginal language or history. In both pieces there is a suggestion that though the desire to teach First National history and language is good that if the form of that teaching is forced into the Euro-centric positivist model of curriculum and course delivery that something is being lost. I agree with this idea, but I am left wondering in the face of such a strong paradigm, what we could do better. If traditional Native American curriculum were delivered (and I know even the word “delivered” is a vestige of the Eurocentric positivist paradigm) in traditional ways then what would be the result? I would hope that the result would be a deepening of the culture and a good foundation for its continued survival. I also believe however that time spent in this kind of experience would be considered wasted by much of Western society that values the nicely quantifiable credit hour and grade. One of the obstacles to more traditional ways of knowing, teaching and learning is capitalism. I don’t like capitalism. Capital is not alive, and yet the net result (pun intended) of capitalism is simply to build, sell and profit from the building and sale of things.

The Weenie article mentions the importance of stories, here is one of my favorites concerning the ills of capitalism. My mother-in-law and I had a heated conversation one day. She suggested to me that gold had intrinsic value. She told me that she had been watching Pat Robertson speak and that he was giving investment advice. In light of my view of Jesus’ teachings on money, I always find myself amused and also sad when I hear evangelicals talk about investments and money. My mother in law said that Pat Robertson said that the best investment right now was gold. He then quickly amended his statement by saying that of course one’s primary investment should be in God’s kingdom, but then gold. Capitalism has become our religion. My little sister who has been a student at UNC, NC State, UNC-Asheville, ASU and the University of Washington and does not yet have a single degree told me once that she had a theory about money. She said that money was infinite, and that because of this that money was positioning itself to compete against love, which is also theoretically infinite.

So ultimately I believe that if each of us can maintain a degree of humility in the face of learning that is harder for us to quantify we can play a small role in the coming paradigm shift.

Alan