"The 'secret education,' as Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dubs it, delivered by children's books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints. And often that world depicts the domination of one sex, one race, one class, or one country over a weaker counterpart."(126)
In our reading by Johnson, Delpit, Kozol, and Carlson, we have been shown that there is a power structure in our society which creates inequities for those who are not members of certain groups. In this reading, we see how this structure is perpetuated in our culture through seemingly harmless media outlets. This "secret education" is pervasive and almost universal in our age of instant, global information. I think the stories are changing. There are certainly still some very negative messages being given to children, adolescents, and adults alike through books, magazines, cartoons, film, TV and other media outlets, but as Christensen herself points out, things are improving; "in old cartoons . . . the stereotypes are so blatant." (129) There are representations of people that would have been commonplace and widely accepted as recently as 50 or 60 years ago that today would be considered unheard of. This represents social progress, but it does not mean that negative stereotyping has been eliminated. The process of unlearning the myths is ongoing.
"Most of the early information we receive about 'others'--people racially, religiously, or socioeconomically different from ourselves--does not come as a result of firsthand experience. The secondhand information we receive has often been distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete . . . ." (126-127)
This is the problem that is created when we have segregated cities and towns with segregated school systems. The best way to really get to know people and to see people as real people and not stereotypes is to actually get to know people. This doesn't happen if children are raised in communities and sent to schools where everybody more or less comes from the same backgrounds as them. This is the problem that our country has been working on since Linda Brown first entered an all-white school in Alabama in 1954. Although, we have legally outlawed school segregation, our society has continued to find economic and social ways to keep many of our school systems almost completely homogeneous. This is where I believe that diverse school systems like the one here in Providence will be at the forefront of the next wave of educational reform. There are advantages for all children in these types of heterogeneous environments that don't necessarily show up on the NECAPs.
"It's okay for some people to be rich and others poor; they just want to see more rich people of color or more rich women. Or better yet, be rich themselves. They accept the inequalities in power and exploitative economic relationships." (133)
Earlier in the essay, Christensen references the Brazilian educator Paolo Friere. This quote speaks directly to one of the main ideas in Friere's book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He talks about the idea that the system of oppression can never really change unless oppressed people view the system which oppresses them as flawed. If the ultimate goal is to attain power within that system then oppression will always exist regardless of who is in power. In Friere's view, a successful rebellion against the power structure must not simply overthrow the individuals or groups who hold the power, but must overthrow the system itself.
This was an interesting read, combining social philosophy with real world teaching examples. I was intrigued by Linda Christensen's examples of the ways in which she helped her students to look at the world in a deeper way than they were accustomed to. It left me wondering how she manages to teach what she is teaching without being forced to desist in her methods by the school administration. Presumably, her relatively radical lessons aren't a part of the "approved curriculum" of her district.
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