A Vigorous Opposition

This last week we attended a roundtable discussion at Ateneo University entitled Politics in the Wake of EDSA. Much of the dialogue that took place revolved around politics of the new Filipino President, Duterte. Duterte’s political rhetoric has thus far been drastic, and that extremity has many people nervous that their system of governance will further stratify the social classes. The prevalence of poverty in the Philippines is already very high thus the conversation at Ateneo University carried a lot of weight. One of the speakers encouraged Filipino people to come together in an effort to “provide a vigorous opposition” (Bello, 2016) to politics that further marginalize Filipinos. The current political system of the Philippines has been indoctrinated and influenced by American imperialism and its ideals through hegemonic educational reform.

            According to Constantino in his article, The Miseducation of the Filipino, “The most effective means of subjugating a people is to capture their minds (p. 178).”  In terms of colonial conquest U.S. leaders, like General McArthur and General Otis, thought they could best groom Filipinos for self-governance by pacifying them through educational means. Parallels can be drawn between the institutionalization of American ideals in Filipino education and that of indigenous peoples in the United States (U.S.) In an article by Paulet To Change the World: the Use of American Indian Education in the Philippines (2007) the connection between the education of Indigenous people of the U.S. and Filipinos is highlighted. It is highlighted in the way that White Americans in control at the time thought that both groups of people need to be saved, not only for themselves but to make them easier to control. Controlled in the sense that they would be transformed into something different than their identity before colonial contact. The framework for which the Filipinos were to be taught had to reach beyond simply reading, writing and math, and move into a type of transformative education wherein massive cultural shifts were to set to take place or as Paulet puts it “to Americanize its pupils (p185).” By Americanizing the pupils Americans could further their imperialist agenda without engaging in the blatant impositional European style of imperialism. This allowed Americans to distance and solidify their identity as separate and perhaps benevolent in comparison to the Europeans, meanwhile advancing their capitalist conquest that related to the Chinese market.

            It is important to examine the role that American educational policy has had on Filipinos and Filipino Americans in terms of identity construction. One of the primary goals of setting up free and public schools in the archipelago of the Philippines was to disconnect people from their traditional culture. When people are severed from their traditional culture one issue, that is related to this article, is that they learn that the culture that is dominating them is one of truth. In the article “Knowledge Construction, Transformative Academic Knowledge and Filipino American Identity and Experience” connects the way in which American education is lacking, almost entirely, Filipino cultural relevance and the negative consequences it has on the process of identity construction for Filipino Americans. The aggressive exclusion of the Filipino and Filipino American experience, including the use of their native languages, in educational and other systems of power has contributed largely to a deeply felt colonial mentality. Colonial mentality, which is defined by David and Okazaki, is a state of internalized oppression. In that internalized oppression many negative feelings come about in terms of personal identity, Filipino culture itself, people who do not fit into American culture and justifying or “tolerating historical and contemporary oppression of Filipinos and Filipino Americans (p.242).”

            I believe it to be true when Constantino states that the function of education now must be to correct distortion (p.192). That distortion is deeply rooted throughout our systems of power, and within education specifically, wherein the story of people of color have been and are currently being pushed down and out. I look forward to working in partnership and building that “vigorous opposition” that Walden spoke of at the round table discussion at the University of Ateneo. Within that realm we can move beyond asking each other questions like “who is pure American?” and “who is pure Filipino?” like what happened at the Philippine Women’s University. We can delve deeper into critical analysis and challenge the dominance that holds so many of us down.

           

 References:

Andresen, T. (2012). Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience, In E.Bonus & D. Maramba (Eds.) The “other” students: Filipino Americans, education, and power. (pp. 65-87). Charlotte, NC: IAP

Bello, W. (2016, August 2). Politics in the Wake of EDSA. Lecture presented at Doing Digong in Philippines, Manila.

Constantinio, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipionos. In I In A.V.Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of war. (pp.177-192). New York: New York Press

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation. Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16

Paulet, A. (2007). To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the Philippines. History of Educational Quarterly, 47 (2), 173-202