Campus Carrier Editorial Board
If you have ever taken a political theory class, a philosophy class or even many basic rhetoric and writing classes, you are familiar with the Greeks’ contributions to philosophy and the arts. Ethos, pathos and logos are all terms that have been drilled into our minds from early on. And rightfully so, as these and other Greek concepts form integral parts of many educational disciplines. Even colleges’ idea for liberal arts was a concept valued by Greek instructors. However, they are still just parts of the discipline, not the whole of it.
It seems American education tends to value the Greek and western civilization’s contributions to education, rather than working to create a more globally influenced course view. This is understandable, since many Greek ideas were taken up whole-heartedly by the Roman Empire, who took over the British Isles. The British Isles then went on to form the British empire, which established the American colonies and it’s all pretty much a basic history lesson from there. The point of this, history aside, is that Greek philosophy is in America’s metaphorical blood. It’s natural we turn to it in education and for many subjects, the Greeks—often literally—wrote the book.
Although, just because it is in the U.S.’s imperialist past does not mean we should ignore the Eastern or Southern side of the globe’s contributions to educational fields.
An article published in NPR on Nov. 12, 2012, detailing how Western and Eastern cultures view education differently states “each has its strengths and weaknesses, which both sides know.” Both cultures have different views on the educational system yet neither invalidates the other. They both have important things to teach. And this view is not only applicable to how we teach students. It is also applicable to what we teach them.
An article in The Atlantic on Dec. 23, 2013, reports on a woman who read a book from every independent country in the world—a grand total of 197 books. In an article in BBC published on Jul. 15, 2013, she commented on how before she had mainly read books from British and American authors. After she finished she found that her four favorite books were from Mongolia, Pakistan, Togo and Myanmar. She stated that “through reading the stories shared with me by bookish strangers around the globe, I (realized) I was not an isolated person, but part of a network that stretched all over the planet.”
Reading books by foreign authors can teach us about a culture in an unexpected way. When you are reading someone’s words, you are viewing an experience as close as you can get to that person’s thought process. From the subject matter to the word choices the author makes, we may be able to see the impact a different culture has had. We should adapt education to include not just the experiences and discoveries of mainly Western culture but Eastern and Southern, too.
By examining material from across the globe, we take one massive step closer to a full liberal arts experience. After all, education does not just happen in the U.S. It is a global activity.