I am who I am because of my culture
Article Summary
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| John S Veitch |
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| The Network Ambassador |
We are largely unaware of our own culture. I live in New Zealand. Scottish, Irish, chinese and Maori traditions are common here.
One of my best friends at primary school was Chinese. I knew that he spoke Mandarin at home.
I was aware of religious differences. I was supposed to be Presbyterian, and I knew that Catholics were for some reason "the enemy".
In the same way, it was important to be a Christian. This was more than having "faith in God" or "believing" it was about claiming my place in the middle class I think.
I didn't go to university from high school because of unwritten expectations in our family informed me that I would leave school.
We are by the age of 13 or 14 brim full of propaganda. If you have the courage, it will take most of your lifetime to unpack it all.
The tradition in Maori families was to leave school as soon as possible and to go to the freezing works or onto the fishing boats, and earn as much money as one could.
There was an alternative route to success among young Maori. To be a really good rugby player. That meant you had to be tough, you had to be a real man.
Family and culture teach us, long before we can understand why, a long list of things that colour the rest of our lives.
We earn privileges because of that membership, things like recognition, jobs, social opportunities and respect.
Some of what we've been taught isn't well adapted to this modern changing world. The rules we've learned tend to prevent us from seeing that.
Our learning tells us what's important and unimportant, and what we should try to learn and what we should reject.
Each of us needs to find tools to reexamine who we are and what's important in our lives.
To have a more "Open Future©" I'm responsible for my own deschooling, and only I can do it.
If you need the original article it's here.
