Not to Embarrass, But to Educate
Neutrality was something that you learn in many classes while growing up. I learned it in History to language arts, and ut was always focused on the basic definition. The teachers never went into detail, and the students never tried to dwell on the meaning. The principle that was engraved in our minds was that neutrality was everyone being treated and seen the same, and the education community thrived on that platform thinking that’s what equality in diversity means. Although from reading Freire and Horton’s conversation, there is an underlying denotation that not many point out. Myles’s statement brings a new light to the word by declaring how “Neutrality is just being what the system asks us to be. Neutrality, in other words, was an immoral act” (102). This statement and the rest of Paulo and Myles’s conversation helped me get a grasp of their own opinions and helped me form my own as well. You must be able to be an individual who isn’t swayed by the norm. There are so many stereotypes in the current environment, whether that be social media, workplace, etc., that will judge and criticize human beings for having an opinion and thrives on growing as someone who is different than society’s standards. Cultural Humility also speaks out on this by stating ow we must recognize and challenge power imbalances. The best imagery to help conceptualize this is when Myles explained the significance of him planting seeds where people are in his garden for a reason. He stated,
“But if you’re going to start where they are and they don’t change, then there’s no point in starting because they’re not going anywhere. So while I insist on starting where people are, that’s the only place they could start. I can start somewhere else. I can start where I am, but they’ve got to start somewhere where they are. But then if you don’t have some vision of what out to be or what they can become, then you have no way of contributing anything to the process” (99).
This connects with principles of knowledge in education, theory in being able too to state your own ideas, and practicing these beliefs. Neutrality is a basis in where we get the wrong definition from the start of our education. We, as human beings are not meant to see the same, look the same, and act the same. That is not neutrality. Neutrality is being able to treat each other on the same level as others when we start to diverse. For example, the imagery of the seeds in the garden. If we are all seeds, we start planted together, but we must know what we want to grow up to be and have my own place in the ground to grow somewhere else no matter my starting point. Neutrality is being planted with everyone else in the same location but also accepting the idea of the different seeds that will sprout in different ways due to their individualism. This is said at the beginning of the video of Cultural humility when they speak about Life-long learning and critical self-reflection. They acknowledge how each of us is a complicated human being and you can’t judge others because only ourselves will know our history and our identity. Not only this but this all starts with education. We might not see it, but everyone in the education system practices this. From teachers teaching P.E. to Biology, there’s always a reason behind learning these topics that relate to what we want to do with what we are learning to make a difference in ours and others lives and hearing how these learning outcomes have an impact on society which is the whole underlying reason of learning. We learn to make something of ourselves and make a difference with the tool of education, and the teachers know this and will state their own opinions not to impose and sway ours but to help us understand that everyone has different perspectives. We do this our whole lives throughout our education which is practice. Our education of learning different subjects, socializing and accepting different people within the educational community, and being able to find what we want to do with these tools is practicing neutrality, independence, and opinion forming. This practice helps bring the aspects that Myles and Paulo bring up to make us experts in who we are, how we see others and their opinions, and what we can become.
They saw the educators felt like they know so much which makes them powerful were bias because they saw in their own community that families who came into hospitals were not being heard from their own heritage. The historic event that prompted the founders to create and implement the principles of Cultural Humility was the beating of Rodney King and the police brutality. They saw the faculty needed to learn that the organization isn’t to be embarrass them on the cultural humility but to educate them. Not only this, but they saw the response to Rodney King is something they can help as well. Their idea was to educate people who work in these businesses that are focused on helping others on cultural aspects and how to deviate from cultural biases. They used this throughout the video by showing people who have stories where they first handed experienced a cultural bias in their communities. For example, they talked about how some faculty members weren’t able to communicate due to everything being in only English. This relates to Verghese’s realizations because when he was helping patients, so many of them have been dismissed or uncared for. SO many of them don’t take the pills needed and aren’t treated like others until he met the one man and said sorry for those who had an unbalanced power privilege and cultural bias. Then the man responded that that’s all he needed to hear because all he needs is sorry. That correlates with Cultural Humility because the video is not trying to humiliate others but just to educate them so that they are aware of what is happening in our society without being blindsided by their own unbalanced power.
One way I can practice cultural humility with my community partner is being aware of those that I will work with. I will be with adults who will most likely have a first language that is different from mine and I need to be open to their culture and educate myself with this volunteering experience because although it might be to help them, they are impacting me as well. I also want to be able to help them the best that I can. One thing that I will want to practice is examining power, privilege, and social domination when working with ESL adults. I want to be able to recognize the privileges that I have compared to others and I want to be able to find a balance with others and use this privilege as a way to enhance other people’s lives someway.
