COLUMN: Subsaharan Africa–Brought to You by Beavis and Butthead

From Jennifer Wana's "Whatever You Say, Dear," Winter '94 From Jennifer Wana's "Whatever You Say, Dear," Winter '94Okay, picture this. I'm sitting in recitation for a Far Eastern Religions class. Even though it was only for a distribution requirement, I was pretty psyched to be taking a class that actually had something to do with Asia, not to mention Buddhism. Weekly papers. Blah. Bulkpack readings. Sure, whatever. Final Exam. So what else is new? A group project involving an oral and written report on a famous European explorer and his perspectives on Asian Civilization. Wait a minute. Excuse me?? So being the proud, psycho-multicultural Asian-American that I am, I asked, "Excuse me, but what does that have to do with Far Eastern Religions?" "Well, part of the report will be directed towards what the explorers thought about the religions they encountered." "But why do we need to see this from a European explorer's perspective? Why can't we research and do a report on Confucius or Nirvana or something? " At this point, the TA said something about Religious Studies 53 being a lead-in course to History 11, which started in the colonial period in which these explorers lived, and so on, and so forth... Now I'm asking you, would it make sense to teach the history of Christianity and Judaism by telling students to find out what a Japanese traveler thought of Europe? Or even better yet, let's teach Afro-American Studies 177 (The Afro-American Experience) by having students do reports on a member of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with presenting a different perspective in a classroom. It's insightful to read what the Russian newspaper Pravda thinks of U.S. foreign policy. I would love to hear what mothers of young children think of "Beavis and Butt-head." But when it comes to a major group project which takes up a great deal of time and is worth 35% of your semester grade, I don't think it's all that enlightening to give, much less hear, a 40-minute oral report on Marco Polo discovering noodles in China. What else could we have spent half of the semester studying instead? Maybe something actually having to do with Far Eastern religions isn't a bad idea. Jainism in the modern world...The life of Lao-Tzu...Buddhism in Southeast Asia... So anyway, by the end of the semester my group had finished our report. We selected the topic from the list called "British Women in India," one of the two topics conveniently added soon after the question I asked in recitation, along with "Chinese Buddhists' Travels through Asia." The other groups had researched Magellan, Polo, Xavier, Ricci, and other European explorers. I got up and reported on my particular book, Up the Country, by Emily Eden, a sister of the governor-general of India during the colonial period. I presented the author's views on the Asian civilization, just as the professor had assigned, and, like my fellow group members, I also gave some direct quotes, such as this one, "My own belief is that as people in India are uncommonly dull, the surplus share of sense is 'served out' to the beasts, who are therefore un-commonly clever, and their talents are developed by their owners leading such solitary lives that they are able to devote more time to the education of their animals." Ah ... nothing like a refreshing, insightful discourse on the religions of the Far East. Do I dislike my professor and my TA? Not at all. Do I think they're ignorant? No. But do I think they should question whose perspectives and attitudes they're emphasizing in the classroom? Yes. The educational system has always been guilty of insisting on presenting a Eurocentric standpoint, regardless of what subject matter is being taught. It is the responsibility of the faculty, as well as the students, to question when this is happening and what can be done. As long as perspectives and experiences of other cultures are not shared in the classrooms, we can never hope to fully understand how diverse and multicultural (not those words again!) America really is. It might even be nice for people of Asian descent to actually be able to research historical figures of their culture and present these experiences and views to other students. But then again, why even bother encouraging an Asian perspective on Asian religions? After all, this is Penn. Jenifer Wana is junior Communications major from Willowbrook, Illinois. Whatever you say, dear appears alternate Fridays.