It Takes A Pueblo - Culture Change in Puerto Rico

You need to walk a mile in the shoes of a (hu)man before you can understand the (hu)man.  In order to teach that (hu)man, you must understand the (hu)man.

Recent articles by Jay Fonseca and Samuel Oakford call our attention to the immigration of young upwardly professional Puerto Ricans p'al norte (migration to the US of A).  Here's another perspective to consider...

Where Do We Learn?

Without out access to a formalized school system, mankind suffers.  To doubt this suggests you doubt science.  And we know what Neil deGrace Tyson shows us; science doesn't need your belief to still be true.

However, whether a child relieves a formal education or not, they will always get educated by his(her) pueblo.  Especially so, by her parents,  his immediate family, or even groups and individuals outside their family (media,church, politicians, etc.).

Gettin' Schooled!

Melvin Resnick studied the history of English bilingualism in Puerto Rico and shared his findings in the 1990's.  In a landmark paper, he observed "motivated failure" within the English as a second language, educational system.

Most ESL students on the island confront real obstacles to learning English.  To illustrate the failure of teaching English, consider that most school children in Puerto Rico receive 12+ years of English (SL) education, but some 80% of Puerto Ricans remain functionally monolingual (Spanish only).

Resnick points to effort to convince the Puerto Rican people that the learning of English meant the loss of identity and subjugation to a foreign colonial power (coming after 400+ Spanish colonialism, in the end, most Puerto Ricans were pretty sick of the treatment by the Spanish).

The rhetoric can even go so far as suggesting that the resistance to learning English was a simple rejection of the United States' attempt to Americanize Puerto Ricans through the public school system.

Finally

This is just one motivated failure example, among an infinite others that occurs outside of the formal education system.  Me, I was raised in a pluebo that was prejudiced against the black.  In others it might be homophobia or prejudism against Dominicans.  Or maybe even as extreme as pueblos which forbid women from showing their faces or receiving any formal education.  For certain, in all of the varied places around the world, it's our pueblos that define who we are and how we see the world.

Throughout (hu)mankind's existence, we've repeatedly seen that only through education and community can we get (hu)man to act against his self-interest.  Just as our ancestors used a new found respect and belief in science to bring us out of the dark ages and into the age of enlightenment, we too must find our way out of the blinders which keep (hu)mankind ignorant and afraid.

So while we must depend on public and private schools to teach our children reading, writing, and arithmetic, we must find new ways of teaching our children something which goes beyond technology or even information literacy, let's call it perspective(science) literacy.  In perspective literacy we use science to teach (hu)man his place in the universe, her place in her pueblo, and how that science dictates our place within them all.

Into The Future

A new digital generation will soon bear the burden of humanity.  Grown from long term technology literacy and digital independence, this new generations relates differently; it doesn't need television news, consumes mass quantities of modern media, and shares nearly everything that happens in their lives on the Internet.

It will take considerable study of the impact of this new generation.  What tragedies are bound to happen?  Which tragedies have the highest probabilities of impacting our well-being?  How will this generation (or the next) be any less self-serving than most of it's predecessors?  Unfortunately, all of this a big ask of any pueblo, even for any group of (hu)mans.

Of course there are always tragedies which bring about the end of the world as we (Puerto Rico) know it; who knows it may even be a large scale extinction event, the kind that forever changes a pueblo.  It's been a while since Puerto Rico has faced one...we can only wonder what might be the first, or the next.  How will our pueblo change?  How will our pueblo survive?