Newspapers / The Guilfordian. / April 23, 1990, edition 1 / Page 2
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Balanced curriculum could foster wholeness and truth Mel Keiser Guest Writer I am concerned about the serious mis understanding of the issues and the form of Bill Burris' full-page advertisement for the National Association of Scholars en titled "Is the Curriculum Biased?" (The Guilfordian, April 16). Bill has presented us with an ad about issues we have been discussing for the last two years in the Curriculum Task Force, whether to institute a core co-requirement dealing with problems of sexism, racism and classism. Why has he chosen to ad vertise rather thanto engage in dialogue, and at the very end of the academic year? In the language of his own ad, isn't this a "polemical" or "politicized" act that "undermines the possibility of a true community of discourse?" Such advertis ing violates our collaborative form of Quaker decision-making, working through issues rather than proclaiming a view. The ad calls for "cogent argument" yet offers none itself. For instance, it affirms objectivity, yet fails to define what that is, QUILFORDIAN Editor-in-Chief Jason Underwood News Editor Peter Smith Features Editor Eric Badertscher Editorials Editor Laurel Nesbitt Sports Editor Scott Genualdi Photo Editor Charles Almy Copy Editor David Simpson Layout Editor Jacob Stohler Business Manager Anna Yeargin Production Coordinator Joyce Atkinson Faculty Advisor Jeff Jeske Assistant Copy Editor Laura Seel Assistant Layout Editor Betsy Vance Advertising Director Martha McCoy Staff: Hobie Anthony, Nancy Benson, Andrew Bloom, Dena Bolton, Carolyn Bundy, Emily Carr, Brad Chance, Allison Dean, Alexandra Duckworth, Mike Gross man, Larisa Hulnick, Vic Johnson, Baker Koppleman, Butch Maier, Laura Marshall, Lisa Pope, Lara Ramsey, Cory Schwartz, Jane Scott, Joe Studivant, Ted Talcott, Dana Tritsch, Eugene Wan and Ami Worthen. The Guilfordian is the student newspaper of Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C. Mailing information can be obtained through The Guilfordian's office. Submitted articles are welcome. Opinions expressed in editorials and letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and editorial board of The Guilfordian. The editor(s) reserve the editorial licence to The Guilfordian staff. Please address all mail to: The Guilfordian, Box 17717, Greensboro, NC 27410. 2 THE GUILFORDIAN April 23, 1990 PERSPECTIVES the reasons for it and why it is under criticism. It rather merely asserts that ob jectivity is subverted by multi-perspec tives. It does argue against belief in the cultural conditioning of all knowing but merely calls it a name, "stereotypic." The voice we hear in this ad is the voice of domination. Consider its combative language—attack, rebut, demand, reject, subvert. What this ad misunderstands is that the real issue is not whether Western culture or minority cultures are going to dominate our lives and curriculum, but whether the very mode of domination itself doesn't have to be changed, not only for justice and truth but for our very sur vival. Presenting the issue as if it were about "proportional representation" of minority authors masks this fundamental issue of global transformation. It is not the West that is under attack but the Western mode of patriarchal domination. Equality and freedom are very important democratic virtues, but we presently adhere to them within a framework of competitive indi vidualism that defines the self as basically separate rather than connected (to other selves, our fellow earthcreatures and the Cosmos as a whole), and is interested prin cipally in freedom from constraints rather than freedom for mutual interaction. Within a society of dominators and dominated, the plea for objectivity and universalism transcending cultural par ticularities, such as "the special problems of women and minorities," is an endorse ment of the dominators' point of view. The dominant culture of power and privi lege defines the self and what it needs to learn, and because it has the power, calls its view "universal." Studying the margi nalized of our own culture as well as of non-Western cultures can open our eyes to this mistaken identification of our par ticular perspective with the universal. Of course objectivity in this sense is subverted in affirming that different peoples see things differently. The posi tion of this ad is to rule out the different perspectives borne of different experi ences to the degree that they do not con form to the dominator's viewpoint. It is willing to "draw upon" and be "enriched by" other cultures but only if it can main tain its hegemony. The affirmation of objectivity is central to modern culture. But what is at issue is whether WQ can go beyond modern cul- Western "canon" is limited Martha Cooley Guest Writer In spite of its claim to support ethnic studies, the study of non-Western cultures and the study of special problems of women and minorities in our society, the statement by the National Association of Scholars still sounds after four or more readings like an advertisement to put an end to studies going on which interfere in any way with the "canon." I have long felt that we are not doing an adequate job of teaching the background to our Western heritage and I would urge us as a group to decide what the principles are which must be taught and to decide how we wish to teach them, but the statement beyond this point implies that there is a simple answer to some very complex issues. Unfortu nately, to respond to each point or nuance in the article would require many pages. I will therefore respond in a more general way to a few topics. The tone of the statement implies that "other nations are rapidly adapting West em practices to their own situations" because of the values identified with Western tradition. I believe this attitude continues the Eurocentric, ethnocentric tare which splits the objective and subjec tive, mind and body,"to a new way of being that affirms our interrelatedness, eschews violence and aggressive control, and works toward the mutual good of the whole. Modernity's objectivism and dualism has contributed brilliantly to our understanding of self and world, but it has also brought us to the brink of nuclear and environmental annihilation. Philosophers in our own day have worked hard to rede fine objectivity, to show that all "objec tive" truths are grounded in human pas sions and commitments. The truths of math, science, and history are all the result of "personal knowledge" (Polanyi), based on passionate commitments to the intelli gibility of things, the pursuit of personal hunches in discovery, and the upholding of standards for confirmation that we believe in. "Postcritical" objectivity embraces rather than denies "the special problems of women and minorities." We all speak from passionate commitments and see certain aspects of reality from our particu lar perspectives. We need to listen to those aspects that others see from their see KEISER on page 6 >- perspective we have toward the rest of the world. Out of the Western hemisphere have emerged an area which became tech nologically more advanced than the rest of the world after Western expansion began in the late 15th century. Thenon-Westem cultures (and even some Western if you include Russia) viewed Western mod ernization as a non-cultural process and wished to emulate it in order to compete with the West and/or throw off control by the West There is some disagreement over whether one can modernize without adopting Western institutions. Whether this is or is not the case, it is still true that other cultures when adopting moderniza tion and some Western institutions do put the stamp of their own culture and tradi tions upon the process and therefore change the character of what they adopted. The statement's approach also fails to take into consideration, it seems to me, the length of existence of some non-Westem civilizations and the level of existence of some non-Western civilizations and the level of achievement of those civiliza tions before 1500. In addition, this ap proach appears to assume that the West em domination of the world will continue to exist at a time in our history when there see COOLEY on page 6 >■
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