is there a hierarchy of cultural appropriation?

commonunity:

i interview a lot of people for my research.  i was interviewing a native american and asked him his opinion regarding cultural appropriation.  after i explained what the general concept was we discussed it for 20-30 minutes.  i recorded this dialogue and these are his exact words as i transcribed them. he asked me a question that i had not considered.  

he asked, “there’s always somebody worse off than you, so you can’t take stuff from us, is then, is there anybody in worse off shape that i can’t get, take from… um, or is there somebody you, like, can’t take stuff from that i can?  you know, like can i wear black clothes but you can’t?  is there a um… can’t think of anyone worse off than an indian (laughs).  so, you take from the guy up, above you, but you can’t take nothing from the guy down below you.  thats… i don’t, doesn’t that seem kind of fucked up?”

so, anthro majors, what do you guys think of his response?

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Maurizio Cattelan

"We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn."

Peter Drucker (via generic1)

classrooms without walls

marisarmiller:

Some notes from Earthcare on the work of Richard Klein, a teacher at the Monarch School, where twice a week I intern as a teaching assistant with a group of children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder and other neurological differences. After working with him, Shannon, and two of my students last week, making straw bale clay with hands and feet on a tarp outside, I’m curious to find out about more outdoors-based programs for special needs children… 

Learning in a classroom with no walls 

Teachers who are able to offer children outdoor learning activities say children can learn more outdoors than in the classroom with four walls.

Children who have learning differences and special needs respond more positively to learning when it involves hands-on activities outdoors, says Richard Klein, who teaches in the Challenger Program at Monarch School for 6th to 12 graders who have learning differences.

He says if students can do something with their hands instead of worksheets and writing, they are more engaged and are able and willing to learn more information. Klein’s students are involved in building canoes and kayaks so they can float down the Buffalo Bayou in Houston and clean up trash and test the water. Klein says the students will learn about pH with a reason to learn about pH.

The project gives them the opportunity to learn to use power tools and work as a team. Children who have Asperger’s Syndrome or autism, often avoid socializing and making eye contact. The children are learning to work together and make eye contact in order to accomplish the tasks.

Another project of the Challenger science class is a garden near the Houston Zoo. The students are taking ownership with regular visits to the garden. By the third visit, instead of whining - “do I have to do this?” - they are saying , “I want to do weeding, or I want to do compost.” Klein says he doesn’t find this kind of project ownership in a classroom with four walls. But he does find it in a classroom with no walls.

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

I called the Christian radio station today

squashed:

While my Christian credentials are pretty solid—I also self-identify as a post-modernist, which is a combination that’s liable to confuse the Christian Broadcaster type. After all, postmodern thought is supposed to be an element of “the culture” which Christianity (in their view) is supposed to stand against (or, really, shelter its children from).

The host and an author were discussing the various flaws of modernism and postmodernism (or of caricatures there of). And they were perplexed about why Christian students seemed to be lured in by the supposed evils of what they saw as postmodern thought. Then they mentioned that if I would like to join the conversation, I should call them at their 1-800 number.

It just so happened that I did want to join the conversation. I asked them to clarify why they seemed so antagonistic toward postmodernism. After all, the postmodern critique of cultural constructions is awfully similar to the religious critique of cultural idolatry. Shouldn’t the two be allies?

What I didn’t say was this:

I don’t believe your talk of the Christian worldview and the culture’s secular worldview. Your supposedly “Christian worldview” is really a subculture—and you don’t like postmodernism because it levels its critiques at your subculture as well. Postmodernism thinks that its awfully interesting and not at all coincidental that your churches are largely segregated on Sunday mornings and that your beliefs seem to be just radical enough for you to feel a close-knit community with those who share those beliefs, but not radical enough to demand serious material sacrifice. And your willingness to emphasize or de-emphasize elements of what you believe to fit into a conservative political ideology is also fascinating and predictable. I think your criticism of postmodernism is simply fear that somebody might shatter the golden calves you gotten so comfortable with.

Matthew Taylor - 21st century enlightenment

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anglophonic: http://www.etsy.com/listing/49447228/native-appropriations-10x8-digital-print

Does Language Influence Culture? →

This research cuts right to the fundamental questions we all ask about ourselves. How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak.