Who Shall Own the Schools
Hezel, Francis X. (1982). "Who Shall Own the Schools". Reflections on Micronesia: Collected Papers. Kolonia, Pohnpei: Micronesian Seminar. pp. 62–68.
- Has attachment: File:8L2WU532.pdf
Abstract: It is not my purpose here to turn around and make the school the scapegoat for all the less desirable symptoms of cultural change. We have too ,narlY scapegoats already. What we must do is communicate to the Micronesian parent, realistic picture of just what the school, as it presently exists in Micronesia, and cannot be expected to do. If it functions as it should, for instance, it cannot produce young men Lind women who uncritically accept the traditional social institutions and authority systems. Neither will it turn out persons whose life gOed:; are just what they would have been if they remained in the village to work on the land. Parents must somehow be made aware o.f what the educational planner already knows. It is only when they understand the schooling process and its effects, its social costs and gains, that the Micronesian community can decide whether and how the present educational system should be altered. To do anything less is to deny Micronesian parents their rightful·responsibility in helping to direct the course of change in their society. Schools would then remain monuments to modernization instead of becoming instruments ,:,~ authentic development. While modernization connotes change, regardless, whether it is imposed from without or not, development always implies participation by the community in the processes of change. If the dream of the education !~ plannE"rs who laid the foundations for the school system in Micronesia -a dream of genuine development- is ever to be realized, the information gap them and the people who send their children to these schools must be closed. Only then will the Micronesian adult cease to be a passive spectator to an educational process that he does not understand therefore cannot control.
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MAG: 56005069 OpenAlex: W56005069 CorpusID: 151106807
