My detachment towards Hinduism was not only because my disagreement towards a personal god, but it is because that I’m embarrassed to embrace the culture due to western hegemony and their brainwash over me and also because of my hegemonic environment I live in. A few days ago, during this award show, I was with my friends, who were all white and unfamiliar with anything, who started to ask stereotypical questions like “Is your dad a computer engineer? Well, he’s Indian, that’s why” or “What? Your parents are Hindus? So do they worship Kali and drink blood?” Thanks to Steven Spielberg, no one understands who Kali is and dismiss the case with preposterous idolatry.  I can apply myself to Spivak’s subaltern because I am embarrassed, publically, of what Hinduism has done that triggered the British and other Western colonizers into thinking Hinduism is a cult. I cannot speak, therefore, that I am embarrassed that Sati was a tradition practice during when the British colonized us—and it has transformed and allowed the British to imperialize and hegemonize our culture and tradition, without thinking twice about how oppressive and patriarchal the Western society is. It is not like idol worshipping is bad, but throughout western colonialism, it has been shunned and to be seen as ‘bad’. I find myself, my parents and others chasing western ideas and cultures rather than Asian cultures or Eastern cultures due to the fact of western domination over us. I cannot speak, my parents cannot, my ancestors could not, so they were dominated into such, and were imperialized culturally, religiously, with distorted Christianity, and bourgeois traditions that has not only seek western cultures just to look ‘elegant’, but  to also show pride and wealth—and to look rich and westernized. India is a reflection of how it was sabotaged by bourgeois imperialism; now it is referred as a third-world and not to be seen again. No one begs to differ about how prosperous the culture is, the people cannot speak because they are dominated. Edward Sa’id said himself that the Occident (France, British—the westeners) has brought this idea of superiority over the Orient, which has been smashed up to be known as the Middle East, Indians, and the East Asians without any known fact, and the Occident has created assumptions and stereotype of our culture(s) and publishing it in every printed material, which cause us not to speak, but rather to witness the cultural hegemony—that we are and were the subaltern.

Instructing the Ignorant: A Teacher's Work of Mercy

The old proverb that says if you give a man[woman] a Fish you feed him[her] for a day; teach a man[woman] to fish and you feed him[her] for a lifetime, only holds true when the other proverb, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, is not in play. In this case, the latter negates the former as the assumption with the first proverb is that a desire to learn exists. The major issue with education in American culture is that there is a lack of desire to learn. We live in a society of instant gratification where we have receded from being an agrarian culture that toils and strives to work the land and build community, to a life of nomadic gatherers who move with the economic flow to scavenge off of the land by following the path of least resistance.

The group consensus seems to be that we want to be given the correct answers as opposed to discovering the truth for ourselves. Even though we literally have the answers at our fingertips, the majority of people will still ask another person (and take it as fact) before researching a solution. America is known globally for its insufferable individualism claiming we don’t need anyone else’s help and that we can do it on our own. Ironically, Americans in general perceive this as an admirable quality, one that is perpetuated through our methods of education. One has to wonder whatever happened to the original ideals that United a diverse people from differing States together as Americans? Due to the inaccurate and individualistic nature of our grading system, students typically despise group projects and just want to receive their self-deserving A.

Our Educational Hegemony
Over the years I have asked several students, point blank, “If you don’t have an interest in learning what is being taught, then why are you in school?” Quite often the answer I receive can be distilled down to something like this, “I need to jump through the hoops to get the piece of paper that validates my life choices and the knowledge I already possess.” This pragmatic arrogance (and/or ignorance) permeates American education and is often perpetuated by the very educational system that was intended to create life-long learners. If education is understood to be an activity in which the teacher spews forth information that students then regurgitate back to receive an individual grade, then some students are only being fed for a day, while others thirst at the watering trough, refusing to drink.

Teaching is a joint experience whereby both instructor and student share in the learning process. Each person brings into the learning process her unique life experiences that have shaped her understanding of the world and how it should function. In this manner, their pragmatic experiences are acknowledged and valued, all the while leaving the door open for further educational growth. These life experiences have value as they have formed a particular lens through which the student explores the concepts and ideas presented within the curriculum. Encouraging students to share their perspectives and valuing their interpretations reduces and/or eliminates any barriers to expanding and focusing the lens that a student brings to the subject of study. If educators hope to overcome years of this self-perpetuating cultural hegemony within education, then leaders must emerge within the academy who are not afraid of abandoning a broken system and blazing a new trail.

Pedagogical Leadership
Teachers are leaders who influence students to action and that action can take many forms. I believe these forms, and their outcomes, should be the primary reason teachers engage in a pedagogical act. It is also these outcomes that should be the primary focus of assessment. The measure of a successful class is not just the final grade a student receives, but the life integration of the learned philosophies and theories, development of a broader world view, and a deeper understanding of what it means to respect and value others regardless of differences. When the students whom I have taught tell me they have been discussing a topic presented in class with their friends, co-workers, or family, it tells me that they have begun integrating what is being taught into their daily lives.

The various curricular activities that are employed in my courses–analytical writing, discussion forums, group presentations, journaling, case studies, media analysis–all serve to immerse the student in the subject being studied, while providing opportunity for various learning styles. For example, while some students may not speak much in class, they may be extremely articulate in an online discussion. Group activities develop real world collaborative skills and, when used in conjunction with contemporary technology and various forms of social media, provide integration with familiar tools present in most people’s daily lives. Regardless of whether the course is being taught online, blended, or in a traditional classroom setting, the combination of these teaching methods and philosophy is invaluable to the shared experience of the learning process.

A Teacher’s Work of Mercy
A very wise Sister, with many years of educational experience, once quipped as I was leaving her office to teach a class, “That it was time to instruct the ignorant.” I chuckled, never hearing the role of teacher referred to in that fashion. As I have pondered that statement since that day I have come to see the wisdom in that simple honest statement. Quite often we don’t know what we don’t know until we are on the other side of an experience, a class, or a degree. We are unaware of our own ignorance and, due to our prideful individualism, we deny that we don’t know something.

I have always referred to humanity’s prideful arrogance as incompetence. Although, not the traditional definition, I believe that the incompetent are those who refuse to receive instruction and chose to remain ignorant, instead of admitting their own intellectual limitations. I take great pride in students who refuse to be handed a fish and ask instead how to bait the hook; or in those who don’t just take a drink, but dive into the trough so as to absorb knowledge through every pore. Yet, it is not just the students who must be willing to immerse themselves in knowledge, teachers must also be life-long learners who realize their own ignorance and the ever changing landscape of the global community. Because, however we choose to engage this World’s “group projects,” in which we live, love, and learn, is how the teacher’s work of mercy will ultimately be defined by history.