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Re: Truth, Knowledge, Power
John Pastore (venture@CANCUN.RCE.COM.MX)
Tue, 23 Apr 1996 19:11:24 +0000
On 23 Apr 96 at 15:35, Michael Cahill wrote:
> In a message dated 96-04-22 20:45:08 EDT,
> Read@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU (Read, Dwight ANTHRO) writes:
>
>
> But if anthropologists were to get involved, I can think of at least
> two candidates for (?). The first one is "lack of bonding." The
> second one is "lack of discipline." I think the first one would be
> more productive in an explanatory sense, but it would also be more
> difficult to specify and measure. The second one is already being
> suggested by some some family court judges and police officers.
>
A third might be teaching etiquette. How it could be put in
classrooms however without it being associated with something like
Home Economics though (do they still have that anymore?) would be
certainly a challenge. With the absence of the mother at home, and
what was one of the traditional roles of the mother: entertain, as in
tea parties, Sunday Dinners, etc., where's the living-day-to-day
experience? Maybe the solution is the return of mother's to the
homes. In any event, as silly as some might think nowadays as to
Amy Vanderbilt's contributions, wasn't etiquette originally related
to ethics? And, wasn't ethics once a serious academic pursuit? (No
matter how many eventual flunkies).
At best children will be behaved, at worst: know what they are
rebelling against --far better than the apparently more ruthless
behavior when they don't.
A key to teaching etiquette in schools might be here in Mexico where
they make the teaching so much fun that know one seems to know its a
subject. Its taught in the playground, in the dance classes, and in
sing-a-longs. These activities seem to take up at least half of the
students time, but they do learn it.
Ka Xiik Keech Ya Utzil,
John Pastore
Writer/Guide in 'El Mayab'
("The Mayan Homeland")
venture@cancun.rce.com.mx
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