Hey readers, and welcome back!
If you frequent the ASTU100A blogs, then you would know that last week, many people focused on “The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning” by educational scholar, Farhat Shahzad. In the article, Shahzad begins with Wertsch’s idea of collective memory which is the process between humans and technology. However, she focuses on how our interpretative communities affect how learn and remember.
Now you are probably thinking… “Elizabeth, why are choosing to write about Shahzad THIS week? We’re ready to move on!” Well, to answer your question, it was in sociology when we were discussing our reflection paper that made me think back to this article. In sociology we for our reflection papers coming up, we are supposed to explore this website and engage in sociological issues inherent to residential schools in Canada. Again, you are probably wondering, “What does this have anything to do with ASTU?” What came to mind for me was what do Canadians really know about what happened in those residential schools and better yet, what they choose to remember and not to remember about them.
It is easy for many Canadians to say that Canada is a diverse, multicultural, and very accepting country because they often forget what has been done to the Aboriginals in the residential schools. Why is that? Simply because for so long, the Canadian government has been trying to forget about it. Not until recently, have we come to terms and accepted that yes, Canada has committed a cultural genocide. Although Shahzad may not have necessarily been referring to the government when she was writing about interpretative communities, it goes to show that any community, no matter how big or small, can affect how you learn and remember.
The government may not have been directly affected the learning and remembering of Canadians, but they could control what teachers teach in the classroom. The question is, why are we now choosing to remember? Why is it that after decades of trying to hide the truth that it is now that we want to remember? Knowing this and that everyone I learn from there is a bias makes me wonder what information are they censoring from me? What is happening around the world right now that I don’t know about? To answer that some people may say “Just Google it,” but even then with so many people on the internet now and with a click of a finger anyone could easily change a Wikipedia page or just make their own site. Understanding that almost anyone can edit information on some sites or that people in your interperative communities may be bias has taught me that I must always keep an open mind. That although I may not always agree with what someone is saying, I should still respect it. At the same time, it makes me constantly question what is the truth?
I may forever be questioning what the truth is, but when it comes down to it, it is up to me to decide what I believe. If anything, I have learned that you should not always believe the first thing you hear. Hear what other people have to say and learn from it. Don’t forget to remember from it. Who knows, what they say might make help you decide what you want to write in your next blog post.
Until next time,
Elizabeth