Identity and Culture

While reading this chapter about the cultural change in the second wave of European conquest, I can’t help but think back to the stories my parents used to tell me. My parents were both born and raised in Vietnam. By the time they were old enough to go to school the life style in Vietnam had completely change.  My mom would remember her siblings would go help their parents out on the farm, but my mom was lucky enough to attend school. She would remember her siblings talking about how they would have preferred to go to school because then they wouldn’t be stuck in the lifestyle that my grandparents lived in. Reading about the changes that some culture went through when the missionaries began to teach, allowed me to realize how each generation seems to appreciate the type of schoolings they receive. In the chapter Strayer mentions how the kids in countries like Kenya looked up to those kids that were able to go to school. They were happy to be assimilating into the European culture. And that was exactly how my mom felt when she was able to go to school.

            Listening to my parent’s younger days and reading about the type of education that was spread to Africa and Asian makes me appreciate our school system here in the United States. I know that the school system isn’t perfect and there is always budget cuts that cut off important classes, but we do have free public K-12 schooling. My mom always talked about how hard her parents had to work to send her to school, and the things that they learned wasn’t half as useful as what we learn in school today. Western education allowed the people of Africa and Asian to assimilate into the western lifestyle.