Yesterday in our L&C IV class, the topic of immigration cropped up out of a discussion on nationalism. We briefly made reference to the different approaches to the issue of immigration in our country and the crucial role of education in curbing the risks of a social crisis at the end of the 19th century. This relationship between education and immigration in 19th-century
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Hi to everybody. For one thing, referring to the issue of immigration I know that a past national law favoured immigration enormously in that huge extension of lands were given to immigants to cultivate and live. For another thing, there’s an interesting comment in ‘If I may say so’ on education which I would like to relate with Chomskyan perspective in the article ‘Noam Chomsky+ Robert Trivers.'
In ‘The Myth of The Good Immigrant’ there’s a reference to this:
‘Bertoni’s thesis is that national celebrations together with an emphasis on national history and on patriotic feeling were consciously introduced in schools by this time as an ideological instrument to control and lessen the potentially harmful impact of foreign nationalism.’
Chomsky refers to something very similar in:
‘Throughout history it's been mostly the property holders or the educated classes who've tended to support power systems. And that's a large part of what I think education is—it's a form of indoctrination. You have to reconstruct a picture of the world in order to be conducive to the interests and concerns of the educated classes, and this involves a lot of self-deceit’
May be I am mistaken but both concepts ‘ideological instrument to control’ and ‘form of indoctrination’, mentioned by Chomsky, might have a similar significance.
I agree with you Néstor, but not only on the point of indoctrination. When Chomsky refers to a 'reconstruction' of the world, he is pointing to the 'fabrication of History' (using Jenkins' words). The values and events transmitted by any education system are always a selection. This is perhaps why Chomsky refers to education as implying 'a lot of self-deceit.'
Yes, Simud, totally agree with you. I re- read the passage where Chomsky refers to a reconstruction of the world in ones own mind to suit the concerns of the educated classes. This comment is very similar to that of Jenkins when he argues that history is a kind fabrication. It's very interesting.
Once again, Noam has managed to put into a few lines a great deal of ideology. A class-oriented selection of transmitting values? Doesn't that make US - I mean teachers - look like puppets...?
You write very well.
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