Men's Struggles: A View From Europe

I ran across this article in my friend Ken's daily blog--Ken is an amazing teacher at the University of Oregon who daily combs the web for interesting stories.  Written from Zurich, the story remarks that more and more young European women are concluding that they are better off without a man, as men are slow to grow up and are having trouble holding their own in the new economy.  The article notes several possible causes for males falling behind, including the fact that boys, especially, tend to associate doing well in school with being feminine.  I've started to do some reading, writing, and thinking about this for the U.S., where younger females, especially, are outperforming their male counterparts in school and the job market--and doing a better job, on average, as parents and friends and at staying healthy.  The modern economy is shifting to reward skilled communicators and collaborators.  These traits are more commonly associated with females than with males, and males who focus on those skills--like males who do well in school--risk being stigmatized as "girls."  Older men often seem to feel that being a man entails taking health risks--eschewing cancer screenings or sunscreen, for example.  But refuing to "act like a girl" is causing us to fall behind them.  Here's a link to the article: http://www.worldcrunch.com/men-struggle-keep-some-women-pose-question-who-needs-them/4736

Trends in U.S. Education

While in Ghana last fall I was repeatedly struck by the many differences between education there and here, in the U.S.  Ghanaian students tend to take education much more seriously than do their counterparts in North America, and in some respects much more is required of them.  Children as young as three are expected to sit quietly for long periods of time as they work at precisely shaping their letters.  A hush pervaded the crowded  University of Ghana library.  Of course I was visiting the better schools, not the ones hamstrung by class sizes of 100 or teacher-absentee rates of 33%, and Ghanaian education tends to emphasize rote learning rather than critical thinking.  But another difference that I noticed--and it's a characteristic that seems to pervade Ghanaian society in general--is that Ghanaian teachers at all levels feel permission to challenge their students morally and spiritually.  At Ashesi University, a very skilled lecturer sent her students off to work on their essays with these words: "You are eagles.  Now fly."  I would like to find more ways to challenge others and myself to take advantage of our marvelous opportunities to improve our selves and our world.  So often we seem to be just drifting, going through the motions.  But highly educated people in the U.S. have become uncomfortable with that sort of talk. 

Warm Memories

It's been about eleven weeks since Peter and I returned from Ghana, and the schools there and here have been making good progress at exchanging letters.  It's truly been a blessing to hear how excited the students in both places are to learn about each others' lives.  I sometimes read the letters, and they always make me happy and sad all at once.  Some of the students and their parents are making great sacrifices so that they can go to school, and some are frustrated by the lack of textbooks or opportunities to study.  But I'm also touched by the warmth and optimism that the letters reflect.  While in Ghana, many students and teachers told me that they hoped that they could some day travel to the U.S., and a few gently reminded me that my life was much more privileged than theirs--that I could, for example, travel to see them much more easily than they could trave to see me.  On this cold winter day, I look at the paintings that proud students at Anani Memorial International School showed me and wish that I was there to soak in the warmth of their smiles and the Ghana sun.  And I hope and pray that they enjoy opportunities worthy of their talents.

Cooperation in Hunter-Gathering Societies

A recent article in the LA Times (link) summarizes the findings of a group of researchers who just published an article in Nature entitled "Social Networks and Cooperation in Hunter-Gatherers."  It examines the social relations of the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania who have been relatively unaffected by modernity.

The researchers found that the Hadza who tend to be the most cooperative, the most group oriented, tend to associate with each other.  These groups tend to be more prosperous than the groups filled with more selfish people.  The researchers therefore suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, we are wired to care for others in part because it is in our material--not to mention spiritual or psychological--best interests to do so.  This is another indication that "survival of the fittest" has long been a social rather than an individual endeavor.

Peru Textbooks and History

Thank you to a very generous ex-student who is living in Peru, I've been researching how Peruvian high school (which in Peru runs from grades 7-11) textbooks address Peru's early history.  It's very interesting.  Peru has historically been one of the more conservative nations in Latin America, long dominated by the Spanish and their descendants, but its textbooks now celebrate its pre-Columbian past more than the its Spanish colonists or even creole patriots.  Scholars have advanced a couple of explanations for this.  First, since the tremendous bloodshed and disruption that plagued Peru in the 1980s and 1990s was rooted in part in racism and other aspects of inequality, the nation is using its education system to emphasize racial and social harmony.  Second, international organizations emphasizing neo-liberal development projects are also touting multi-culturalism and tolerance.  Both sets of interpreters note that embracing racial reconciliation and Peru's Inca heritage in the abstract do not preclude extreme economic/racial stratification or even denigrating Indians in the present.

More Films About Africa

I have been watching some more recent films about Africa.  I heard about one in a recent Atlantic article about Jack Abramoff, the powerful lobbyist sent to jail some four years ago.  Abramoff, with funding from the pre-Mandela South African government, helped to create the anti-Communist film Red Scorpion, which was a bomb at the box office and hardly approaches great art.  But the film--evidently intended to undermine support for the ANC--is very typical of its genre in showing how a wise and simple African man from the bush tutors a lost and alienated soul.  The redeemed soul in this instance is a nearly superhuman fighting machine who has been cast aside by the Russians and tortured by the Cubans.  (The film isn't long on subtlety.)  He gets his revenge--and serves black Africa--by kicking the living snot and a lot of other bodily fluids out of the Communists.  "A Far Off Place" is much less violent film that appeared four years later, in 1993 (and features a young Reese Witherspoon) that follows some of the same themes.  In this case it's a jaded teenager visiting from the U.S. who learns wisdom from a bushman.  These films show black Africans in much more favorable roles, on the whole, than their counterparts from the 1940s did, but the major black characters are always noble, never interesting or dynamic.

Ghana Historiography

I've lately been working on a piece that's a bit of a departure for me, an article assessing three recent surveys of Ghanaian history.  All three books have been published in Ghana since 2000.  Scholars have commonly made a pair of criticisms of post-independence African histories: 1) That they tend to be celebratory and non-critical of powerful African nations and leaders, before and after European contact; 2) That they tend to mimic traditional European histories in focusing on political history, narrowly defined.  The three books I've analyzed are guilty of the second charge but not the first.  All three books approach Ghana's history critically and address shortcomings of or resistance to Asante (the powerful empire) and Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana's most celebrated founding father).  But all three books define Ghana's history, particularly after European contact, in relatively narrow, political terms.  This neglect of social and cultural history can be attributed to habit, particularly since at least two of the books are intended for high school students who follow a prescribed syllabus, a history of Ghana in which the main subjects have already been established.