San Diego Conference - Day 1

The conference has opened as excitingly as I had hoped. This morning I attended a presentation entitled "Who Controls Historical Memory? Implications for Classroom Teachers and Students. The focus was more on why it's important to bring many perspectives into account to get a better understanding of history than how to do it in the classroom, which gave it a 'preaching to the choir' sort of feel. I did, however, get a LOT of materials addressing how the issue relates specifically to the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and World War II. Large packets of photocopies from various resources were given to us, and I'm excited to read them. Some lesson ideas include reading/watching/recording instances in which historical memory are used to advance or attack courses of action, discussing how these instances are manipulated and changed according to the desires and needs of the person using them. I think it would be interesting, and certainly relevant to students, to examine not only how history and primary sources have bias, but how that bias is used to manipulate people en masse. Perhaps also bring in some elements of how nationalism (or other forms of artificial unity) are created using historical memory.

In the afternoon I went to another set of presentations called "Understanding Islam." I must say, I did come away with a much better understanding than I went in with. Naturally, it is not possible to present a complete understanding of all of Islam in a three hour session. Some highlights include an understanding of the Quran and Islam as a religion focused not on theology/metaphysics/explaining the universe, but as a setting down of legal principles that are to be followed. The goal is submission to the rule of law, and was partially a means of organizing and laying down rules a people that had no such structure. Islam has, alongside the Quran, a body of work called the Haddith, which is similar to the Talmud in its interpretive and prescriptive capacity. We discussed concepts of Jihad. Yes, it means warfare in 99.5% of usages, but there are limits to WHO (not 'people of the book'/monotheists) who can have Jihad declared against them. Even that is, of course, an oversimplification. Islam teaches not only tolerance of Judaism and Christianity, but respect. No one 'of the book' can be forcibly converted. There are five different kinds of rules, each with varying degrees and types of severity attached to them. Purdah is, interestingly, not amongst them. I'm still processing a lot of it.

Also interesting was the conclusion, given by a man who has worked in Iraq to help reconstruct the government and education systems there. He addressed how concepts of democracy are not fully understood by us ourselves (which is understandable, as we are encapsulated in it) and so cannot be easily communicated to others. We think of voting, but voting is a very minuscule part of what makes up our idea of democracy. Furthermore, Iraq totally gets voting. Of course, their version was more "here's your pre-marked ballot, go carry it over there and put it in the box," but they do get it in theory. What is far more difficult for them to understand is what amounts to not only the freedom of speech, but the importance of exercising it constantly. The education system, which has been around to some extent continuously since the eleventh century, has always been very unidirectional. K-college consists of the teacher telling, the students regurgitating, which makes sense given the structure of Islam as a religion. Translators had difficulty communicating the idea of 'deliberation' and 'debate' as a desirable activity, and several experts have postulated that what is really needed in Iraq is not democracy, but liberal arts education. Professors and officials were resistant to discussing controversial topics such as "Should the mosque and state be separated?" They feared losing jobs and being harmed. This portion of 'democracy' is not universal as we sometimes think it is, but is rather quite cultural.

There will be so much to process constantly for the next few days, and hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of it down... it's going to be a mind-blowing weekend! Ask questions, via email or comment, it'll help me get more of it recorded.