Friday, May 7, 2010
Education and Colonization
I found the topic we spoke of today concerning how the process of education can actually be similar to the process of colonization to be very interesting. It got me thinking about the novels we have read and I found two novels we read this semester to show different sides to this argument. In "Nervous Conditions," Tambu's pursual of a colonial education makes her resent her family as well as herself. She is ashamed of the life she led at the homestead because of the education she has received at Sacred Heart. Gandhi, on the other hand, goes to England for an education and ends up becoming a better Hindu in the process. His experiences in England allow him to better appreciate aspects of his native culture. For example, he ends up being a vegetarian by choice rather than out of duty after he arrives in England. These different reactions to colonization cause me to wonder about the question that was posed in class concerning the effect education has on us. Looking at both Tambu and Gandhi makes me question whether the effects on education are different from one person to another. If education truly does cause one to resent one's old self, then is this the case for everyone? If not, what are the reasons why someone responds differently to education than someone else?
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Thankfully the world is wide and we are not all gripped in the way that a Tambu or a Joyce might be, but there opinions, thoughts, experiences go along way with helping us map out our own. It is true, through the acquisition of new knowledge, old knowledge will always be tested. Sometimes our new thoughts come into conflict with our old ones and we begin to question ourselves. Not too sound like Hatterr, or a snobby psuedo intelectual from Portrait of an Artist, but perhaps the ol' bard was indeed right when Pallonius gave his instrunctions to Leartes before Leartes left for school : "never a borrower, or lender be, do not forget, stay out of debt, think twice and take this good advice from me, and to thine own self be true" - let us just hope we always know who we are, lol
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