Reflecting on the Schooling Movie

WOW! I can not begin to describe the thoughts, emotions, and information that I have been trying to sort through after watching the documentary, Schooling: The White Manʻs Last Burden. This movie was truly eye-opening as well as very moving. I am still processing through my thoughts of the movie but I thought Iʻd just share some of my general thoughts about my reactions.

One of my first thoughts of the movie was about the differences in impact for white people compared to the impact on minorities. I felt as though, as a minority, that I was able to relate to the things expressed by the Ladakhi people. I wondered if other white people in the class felt guilty. I wondered what the thought process was in a white personʻs mind verses a minority. While I know there are many other factors and experiences in molding a person, through personal experience, I have found that a person from an oppressed group of people processes things such as this film quite differently then a white person and such conversations are very interesting.

While Hawaii is by no means a third world country, the hardships of poverty are ever so present here in Hawaii and most evident within the Hawaiian people. I was able to draw on similarities on the idea of the white man educating Hawaiians and teaching Hawaiians the ways to have a "better life".

I really liked how the movies showed testimony of native Ladakhi people and showed how mothers were sad that their children went away. The movie repeatedly showed Ladakhi people who were disappointed that the students could no longer speak their first language, that the students could not survive as though their parents had, and consequently the students had lost their culture entirely. The school system had slowly weeded out any language, ability, and knowledge involving the Ladakhi culture. After showing how unhappy the people were with what their children were learning in school, the film showed footage of white people who were proud to say that the education system was helping the students. White people were stating that families were happy that their children went to school. 

This part was very eye-opening because as I related that to my own culture, I wondered if white people that took over Hawaii and outcast our culture, truly believed that they were helping the Hawaiian people. My whole life I have thought that foreigners who took over Hawaii were well aware of their actions and the consequences of doing away with the Hawaiian culture. However, what if white people truly thought they were helping? While I still believe other people had other agendas, such as owning and selling Hawaii, I do believe there were some that did think that by teaching us the foreign beliefs, they were saving the Hawaiian people. The movie had a good point when the National Geographic guy suggested that the white people suggest to the natives that they have skills with which the natives could use. Rather than making the white way, the right way, the foreign ideas would be integrated into the culture rather than erasing the culture entirely.

Fast forwarding to today, the UH system has come very far in immersing the Hawaiian culture and/or history into the University schooling system. While I think there is still lots of work to be done, we are much more ahead then the Ladakhi people. My thoughts today are even though we are integrating Hawaiian culture into our higher education system with majors such as Hawaiian Studies, Hawaiian Language, Hula, etc., how are these students who have chosen to dedicate their education to Hawaiian culture going to be able to survive in our consumer driven society. Is the only job for a Hula major to teach hula or to dance for money? What jobs are available for a Hawaiian studies major or a Hawaiian language major?

The movie showed how the Ladakhi people are out in the fields and they are harvesting their food. It shows how the people are working together everyday to provide food and shelter for their families. In Hawaii, if a student wants to grow their own taro and live off of the land, as did the Hawaiian people of old, that cultural practice is near non-existent without cooperating with the laws and rules governed by the US. For instance, if a student wanted to become a taro farmer, they would need to sell some of their taro in order to pay for land, for water access, for a house, for electricity, etc. Is this plausible?

These are factors introduced by foreigners that are part of everyday society in Hawaii. How do we integrate culture into curriculum AND be able to practice the culture in our consumer driven society? What as HigherEd professionals can we do to help contribute to the success of cultural integration in the university system and how can we apply that outside of the university system?