Schooling The World is a film that showcases the impact of Western education in

different countries. Western education is prevalent in the United States and Europe, but has now

traveled to numerous countries. This film was focused in India, while mentioning other areas,

and speaks about how standardized education has completely changed civilians' day-to-day lives.

It also mentions how the spread of Western education has been proven to have negative effects

on its surrounding areas.

In the 19th century, the United States government forced Native American children to go

to government boarding schools. In these boarding schools children would be forced to cut their

native hair, destroy their native clothing , and rename them with names from the Protestant Bible

(Wells, Melissa & Clayton, Courtney). They would be separated in male and female; males being

taught to farm and blacksmith, while females were being taught to sew and clean. All children

had to speak English. The parents of these children were told that this schooling would help them

fit in while living in America, when in reality these schools were created to destroy Native

American culture. Similar to this event, is the spread of Western education to India. Children

attending schools in India are forced to speak English, are not taught about their culture, and are

instead taught how to function in a corporate world. Only these children are struggling in modern

schools because they do not know how to function in modern ways. They have never been

through standardized testing or classroom environments.

Throughout this film we see several different viewpoints on Western education in India.

There is a group of women who discuss how “with modern schooling, the old values of

cooperation and compassion are starting to decline” and how education has become focused on

“how can I make a lot of money” (Black). These women were born and raised in a small village

where everything was self-sustaining and everyone pulled their own weight. At first, they were
excited for their children to have a better education, but they soon realized its negative costs.

Some families even sold their houses so that their children could receive a good education and to

make a lot of money, however these schools were not preparing them for the real world that they

face. These villages were losing working people, and even worse, their culture. One of the

women mentions how “the ones that get educated stand there with their hands in their pockets”

and that “they don’t know how to do anything” (Black). Not only are the children not succeeding

with their education, but there are now elders that are feeling inferior. I believe that the elders are

extremely intelligent, but maybe not in the ways that the government wants them to be. What is

the definition of education? I believe that it can mean different things for different people and

different cultures. I believe that knowing how to grow food, run a household, and create clothing

is extremely important. Some people do not agree.

Macaulay’s Children was created to train people to suit the government's needs. It is the

idea that children must be trained from a young age to be exactly alike. Vandana Shiva makes an

incredible point when she says that “Macaulay’s children would be brown on the outside but

white on the inside” (Black). While this standardized education is being forced on children, these

children are not getting work after they graduate. Many students in the film even say that they

introduce themselves by using what year they left school. These children then go on to become

street food vendors or car mechanics. Not the glorious jobs their parents dreamed of for them.

A question that I had repeatedly throughout the film is who truly benefits from this forced

standardized education? I believe that children learn in different ways, and I also believe that

culture should be honored. Culture is a persons’ identity. Their family history. The idea that

Western education has been forced on to any group of people is very upsetting. Especially

because it does not seem as though the United States has their education system figured out
anyways. I do think that there could have been a better approach to this whole education

movement, starting with valuing the culture of each region it spreads. I do not understand why

they could not teach differently depending on the region. Even Gandhi was openly questioning

Western education and knowledge when he was still living, saying that “real freedom will come

when we free ourselves of the domination of Western education, Western culture, and the

Western way of living” (Black). We can compare a living culture to an ecosystem, where

“sudden changes have unpredictable effects” (Black).

The idea that people from the United States and Europe will travel to other countries and

claim to love their culture, all while simultaneously being okay with the destruction of it, is

mind-boggling to me. Standardized education is wearing away childrens’ abilities to understand

their local economy and almost completely eliminating their ability to go back into their old

lifestyles. Children are stuck in between. They are being forced into a lifestyle that they cannot

fit into, not only because of failing school systems, but also because of their ethnicities and lack

of privileges. Why is it that English must be taught in other countries, but in the United States

you do not have to learn another language? Why are there students in the United States that do

not know how to read? These are just some of the questions that I believe should have been

focused on before spreading our education to other countries. I am a substitute teacher in a

school system, which means I get to see a lot of different classrooms in a few different schools. I

have seen first-hand students struggle to read and struggle to understand the assignments

expected from them. There is an issue in our own country, so it is sad, but not surprising to me

that other countries are also having issues.

It breaks my heart that these issues are being overlooked so that the government can have

more control. The film has this very powerful quote, “A general State education is a mere
contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mold in which it casts

them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government… it established a

despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body” (Black). There is a

painting in the beginning of the film that I think sends a very powerful overall message about the

modern education issue. This painting depicts a white woman floating through the air. There are

white settlers following her, while Native Americans and wild animals are fleeing from her. This

white woman is carrying a schoolbook in her right hand. This painting was created in 1872 and is

called “American Progress” (Black). Why are we still fleeing from the same floating white

woman?

I am going to make a personal goal of mine to respect and nurture each of my future

students' ethnicities and backgrounds. I truly believe that it is so important to honor all religions,

languages, and ethnicities. While I do want to become an educator in this Western educated

country, I want to try and do my part to preserve precious backgrounds and memories.
 Citations

Schooling the world. Carol Black. (n.d.). https://carolblack.org/schooling-the-world

Wells, M. (n.d.). Foundations of American Education: A critical lens. Google Books.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Foundations_of_American_Education.html?id=pW

zPzgEACAAJ