Vincent J. Curtis
9 July 2015
In an article published in the Hamilton Spectator on July 8, 2015, columnist Carol Goar describes the
actions being contemplated by Canadian universities to “Take the lead on
national reconciliation.”
The column is subtitled, "Universities aim to 'decolonize' their courses and campuses."
In brief, what Carol Goar describes is more condescension
towards Indians and intellectual corruption of the university courses as means
towards ‘national’ reconciliation.
I put the word 'national' in quotes because First Nations
regard themselves as self-determining peoples who exist outside of Canada. Indians may have Canadian citizenship, but
their official position is that they are not
Canadian. If Indians are not Canadian,
then reconciliation is not national.
The condescension arises in the form of “soft bigotry of low
expectations.” Indians are not expected
to perform at the level of white Europeans, and so extra effort must be made to
get them into university and to make them feel comfortable in the world of new
ideas. At least, if the descriptions
made by Goar are true. These actions are
as follows:
-
Bring the rate of university graduation among
indigenous people up to the national average.
Effectively, this means increasing the proportion of degreed indigenous
from 9 % to 28 %. Universities are going
to work with elementary and secondary schools to create a supportive learning
environment for aboriginal students, and provide bridge programs to span the
gap between a high school graduate indigenous and a high school graduate from
Canada.
-
Special programs on campus to help indigenous succeed.
-
“Decolonize” Canada’s universities. That means blending western science with
indigenous knowledge, and integrating aboriginal perspectives into Canadian
scholarship and learning.
-
Urge other institutions to reset their relationship
with indigenous Canadians. [Never mind that “indigenous Canadians” is a contradiction
in terms, since an indigenous not
Canadian.]
Plainly, indigenous are not expected to perform as well as
white Europeans, or else these special programs would not be required. Forget that reconciliation is demanded for
having once tried to force a European education upon the Indians, and here
these universities are offering the same poison but without the coercion. It is not hard to foresee that if the goal is
to achieve a given number, the quality of the degreed indigenous will become
suspect. That 9 % earned their degree,
without special help. Forcing the number
up to 28 % will cause the quality of those degrees to decline, bringing them
all under suspicion.
Intellectual corruption arises in the effort to blend
western science with indigenous knowledge.
Perhaps that corruption has already taken place, since the conceiver of
that proposal obviously is unaware of the unity of truth. Science is an organized body of
knowledge. There is no “western”
science, as such. There is only science,
since knowledge is of the true, and truth is a unity. There is only one truth, and that truth is
for all. There is no western truth, no
indigenous truth; no true for you but false for me.
Insofar as indigenous knowledge is actual knowledge, it is
true. There is no indigenous knowledge
of mathematics, chemistry, or physics that is distinct, different, and
requiring of “blending”. If indigenous
knowledge is actual knowledge, then it is likely found already in one of the sciences.
Plainly reconciliation is being attempted by
well-intentioned but highly uninformed people.
It seems that Europeans instinctively condescend to others, and
that condescension is fully on display here, by these universities. Special things are done in order to make it
possible, or at least appear, that Indigenous can do as well in school as those
educated in Canada. Perhaps this is seen as a form of politeness.
Universities are prepared to compromise on the
principle of the unity of truth in order to effect this “reconciliation.”
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