An Anthropologist from Mars Looks at Schools

Online Activity #2: An Anthropologist from Mars Looks at Schools

1. Watch the film: Schooling the world: The white man’s last burden
* https://wpunj.njvid.net/show.php?pid=njcore:88437

2. Readthe excerpts from Jules Henry “Culture against man” and Bradley Levinson’s “Schooling the symbolic animal”

3. Write an informed and creative response to the prompt below. *Refer to the film, and the readings.

3. Post your response to Blackboard Discussion Board by Thursday end of day.
* copy and paste! Do not attach a word document! * give your post a descriptive title and include your name.

Writing prompt:
The film and the two reading excerpts highlights an often-unremarked aspect of education – its role in reproducing a culture’s norms, values and institutions. In your own words, explain this aspect of education (so that a teenager would be able to understand it). Then, illustrate your point with an extended example about how schools help reproduce our way of life (values, beliefs, norms, knowledge). It may help you to think of yourself as an anthropologist from another culture that is studying “the Americans.” What would you learn about the culture from watching how they educate children? Then step out of this “stranger” role and become a critic of your culture. Do you agree or disagree with the (overt or covert) knowledge that schools transmit. Explain. Knowing what you know – that schools help create a culture and thus individuals, how would you change schools to make the world a better place?

Include thoughts about who are you as a “cultured” person? How did schooling shape you as a person? What might you be like if you had never attended school? Think about yourself as a learner? What learning would you have liked to pursue, independently and with others?