This is indoctrination; it is important to our community, and it is important for us too. In learning the unwritten and written rules of our community, we build a place for ourselves in the society. Our interaction with other people confirms who we are, that we are accepted by them as members.
Ivan Illich argues forcefully that much of our schooling is dysfunctional and that we have a desperate need to be "deschooled". Today, the term "colonisation" is frequently used in the same way as "schooling". Every community has at it's root many assumptions that derive from a historic time when small groups of wealthy and politically powerful people, assumed that they, and they alone, knew best, were guided by God, and had the right and the purpose of civilising the world.
Being schooled contains some fish hooks, in a rapidly changing global society. Some of what we believe is likely to be highly dysfunctional. Look for instance at the map of Africa, compared with the map of Europe. The map of Europe is more the result of real interaction between nation states. The boundaries between countries are often rivers or mountain ranges, real geographic boundaries. In Africa many of the boundaries are straight lines, drawn on a map, according to some political agreement made in Europe, by people who believed that they had that right.
Why do people share knowledge? It's a trade-off. So colonies that were dominated by European masters, did get some advantage in terms of connection to a wider world. But the exchange was always one of exploitation. Even in an unfair exchange, there are still benefits. Knowledge is transferred, and links with other people and a wider world are invaluable.
Willingness to acknowledge the importance of other languages and to learn yourself to speak one or more those languages is an essential skill. The history of other peoples, often allows us to see our own history in a new way. For instance here in New Zealand, we were taught that although the colonial powers of Europe did much that was deplorable, that the British were "better." A touch of Cecil Rhodes, who believed that Britain had a moral duty to create colonies and civilise the world. Rhodes believed the British to be a superior race, and there was certainly some of that in my own education.
There were also reasons why Britain was superior. Partly the industrial revolution, but also lessons learned from past mistakes. The divine right of kings was tempered by the Magna Carta (Great Charter). Britain would have a parliament. The power of the King would be constrained. The loss of the American colonies hurt British pride, but the result was the Durham Report, that paved the way for British colonies (particularly the "white" ones to become self governing Dominions.) And so, when New Zealand was formally colonised, the Treaty of Waitangi as signed, a formal agreement to and equal partnership between the Maori and new settlers. Never mind that after the signing the Treaty, it was pretty much ignored for the next 100 years. Even so, it has been an advantage to New Zealand that other countries don't share, and it's been important in the last 60 years.
At some stage for most of us, one realizes that much of what we have been taught and we've willingly believed since childhood is simply false. So the British did some very wrong things, even in modern times. The partition of Palestine is the most glaring example. I was taught what a wonderful example this was of the best of British, diplomacy. It's been a disaster, not only for the Palestinian people, but in the long run also for what it's done to the people of Israel. I remember being delighted that Israel won the "Six Day War" with Egypt and Syria. I now see that there is a wider context that my younger-self (colonised and schooled) didn't understand.
The process of re-evaluating who you are and what you know isn't easy. This is what Waldo Salt calls "Searching for Truth". It can force you to retire from active participation is some former activities. (In my own case I left the church. I became more interested in history. I began to write a journal, not really knowing "why." For about 10 years I was much less certain about what I thought I knew.)
For Waldo Salt that process began in 1951, when he was blacklisted after refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (Salt was 37). This forced him to find work overseas, and that enlarged his world-view. In 1956 he finally realized that Communism was not after all a solution to the evils of the world. But his troubles were not over. He spent many years trying to rebuild his world-view, his "TRUTH."
Salt's film "Coming Home", was released when he was 64. He interviewed 100's of Vietnam vets, and produced over 5000 pages of research prior to the making of that film.
This later work was possible because Salt had the courage to reexamine himself and everything he had previously believed in mid-life.
To be deschooled is to free yourself from the opinions of experts and to learn to trust your own experience and knowledge. The journal you write will be your own, quite unlike my journal, or any other. Many people lack mentors in their lives, a mentor is someone older, wiser and more experienced who might help you avoid pitfalls, and give you connections into a wider world. A journal can be a mentor substitute. The journal should be used to gather the wisdom and knowledge of other people so you can make better progress. If you are an innovator, a scientist, an inventor, if you are any type of creative person, the process of journal writing can be your tool to discover what is important and "real."
