Where are the directions?

One of the ideas from Lisa Delpit's book, Other People's Chilcren:Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, that really struck me was the notion that perhaps as we go through a Westernized school system, we actually lose some of our individuality. She writes, "Despite the rhetoric of American education, it does not teach children to be independent, but rather to be dependent on external sources for direction, for truth, for meaning" (101). This response comes in the context of a conversation about literacy, and how it applies to people in different cultures. Specifically she is examining Native Alaskan schools and how literacy is a problem there, but she finds out it is because literacy is not valued in the community. In certain cultures, like that of the people she observed in Alaska, more focus is placed on action, and feeling than on language. For me, this was a mind blowing idea.

I had never thought of communication that would NOT revolve around literacy. But she brings up some good points that cause me to pause. If we are literate, we take our facts from other sources, we do not tend to follow our own knowledge, but take the truth of our world from newspapers, politicians, signs, and other forms of language. Do we do anything without being told? And aren't there some ideas that cannot be expressed through words?

We are taught constantly through school to follow directions and explain what we do in words. What if we cannot? Isn't there some part of our individuality that is so complex or unique that words cannot describe? There are only so many words. However, I do not believe there are only so many ways someone can be an individual. I would say one of my goals of being a future educator is to allow students to become individuals; but how can we accomplish this goal if as teachers we only teach them how to be just like everyone else? We ask students to all solve the same math problems, write papers on the same topics, and to explain why reactions happen to the chemicals we manipulate. But how does this create individual minds who look to themselves for direction and purpose? If we constantly teach our students to look to external sources for direction, they will not know how to think individually without directions.

And frankly, life doesn't have a set of directions.