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| CV High School, La Crescenta |
I was raised in
Glendale, a southern California town, in the county of Los Angeles during the
1950s to early 70s where I attended public school in the foothills of the
Verdugo Mountains, in a small town called, La Crescenta. Settled by Don Jose
Verdugo in 1784, it was originally home to the Tongva Indians. In the 1880s, Dr. Benjamin Briggs, a
physician from Indiana found the location as a healthy climate and established
health clinics and a school shortly thereafter. Rockhaven Sanitarium was established as a healthy retreat and
became the choice for prominent people from Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe’s mother was a patient
there.
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| Rockhaven built in 1924 |
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| Rockhaven Sanitarium |
Although the area
was chosen as a healthy climate, I remember the effects of smog. On certain
days, the air was so contaminated with smog that if I breathed deeply, my lungs
would hurt. I can still recall the feeling. In later years, the Los Angeles Air Quality Management
District would set higher standards, so that today, when I visit, I never feel
that pain in breathing.
My parents were
familiar with the area, as my mother was a native Californian, and my father
had been living in nearby Burbank. The school I attended for elementary
education was established in 1924 and named Lincoln School after President
Abraham Lincoln.
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| Lincoln School, 1924 |
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| Lincoln School |
Demographically
speaking, La Crescenta was mainly Caucasian; many residents came from German
ancestry. As a child, I was
unaware of any cultural relativism.
But, this may be due to the fact that there were few racial groups.
Everyone was white. Our community was the same as what was broadcast on
television – Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, My Three
Sons – this is what my culture looked like. In fact, Burbank, home to the television studios was my
neighboring town.
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| Hiddenburg Park, German ancestry |
From the
viewpoint of my community, everyone went to public school, obeyed the teachers,
and attended some denomination of church service. In kindergarten, we were
taught to be nice to others, raise our hands, and take naps on a special little
napping pad brought from home.
Parents were only active in their children’s education by paying dues to
the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), which was considered good and
proper. Parents did not volunteer
to help in the classroom on a regular basis, and one mom, called the
room-mother, was in charge of class parties to be held on the holidays. Christmas was celebrated and we made
Christmas art projects and sang Christmas songs. If there were Jewish kids in our class, I have no memory of
such. There were no Jewish
Synagogues in the town, only Christian churches, the Church of Latter Day
Saints (Mormons), and the Masonic Temple.
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| La Crescenta, California |
My schools –
elementary, junior high, and high school were made up of the same Anglo-Saxon, white
Christian families. We walked to
school, car-pooled, rode the school bus, or drove ourselves (high school). While there were no fences to keep us
in, or others out, we had strict rules to remain on campus. The girls wore dresses, the boys wore
pants, and on occasion we might have a special “pants day” for girls. In high school, there was a small crowd
of boys who smoked tobacco, back behind the school, on “tobacco road”. Long hair was not permitted, and some
of the boys wore wigs to hide their long tresses. I only knew of a few boys who smoked marijuana.
In junior high
school, we were tested academically and placed in classes based on our test
scores. If you tested high, the
teachers seemed to like you better.
I was pulled out for more testing, along with some other students. We had tested within the top two
percent, and acknowledged as being worthy to be placed in advanced math and English
courses. We were encouraged to go
to the school library and read extra books – one being Catcher in the Rye, which was not allowed in the regular
classroom. I responded well to the
extra attention, and set my goals to be the best, score the highest. While this was a worthy accomplishment
by my parents and teachers standards, I found that my fellow students would
occasionally make fun of me for getting good grades. I was not part of any clique, but more on the fringe. From my perspective, this was partly
due to my strict Mormon beliefs. I
did not go to parties, I did not drink, I did not smoke, and sex was only for
the married (Christensen, 1960). For
the most part, my teachers and classmates accepted me even though my culture of
Mormonism had set “truths.”
The general beliefs of white Christians (the dominant culture) were similar
to the truths I had been taught to follow, therefore I was not aware of any
cultural relativism. The schools remained firm in the truths of a strict policy
of dress codes, homework, grades, and Christian ethics. I graduated valedictorian, and went to
college in 1972.
During my college
years at Occidental College, in Los Angeles, California, I was more cognizant
of my surroundings, and looking back I can check for cultural relativism. But first, what is cultural
relativism? Initially an
anthropological term, it is a way of explaining that different cultures have
different perspectives and that those beliefs held dear to one group must be
viewed from the outside as relative to culture (Warnock, 1979). It seems to
embrace tolerance and diversity – two terms adopted by public schools by the
1990s. Anthropologists were not to
“judge” other cultures through the spectacles of their own culture (Gensler,
2013). The term also claims that there are no “absolute truths” since everyone
views truth from their own cultural perspective (Warnock, 1979). Cultural relativism may go so far as to
say, “that good and bad are relative to culture. What is ‘good’ is what is ‘socially approved’ in a given
culture.” (Gensler, p. 44).
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| Occidental College |
Occidental College
was a liberal arts college and embraced diversity and cultural relativism. The science department was the only
area where college did not accept another culture’s belief. Any belief in God and some form of
creation was not tolerated in the explanations of the origins of the
universe. My belief that there is
a divine creator that organized the planets was not accepted as a valid answer
on any given biology test. I
memorized the evolutionary theories and answered accordingly to receive the
all-important grade for my GPA. My
beliefs differ from standard Christians who believe in creation ex nihilio, and
from standard scientists who believe in evolution. Neither my Mormon cultural relativism nor my Christian
friends beliefs would have been acceptable answers. Yet, other areas of cultural relativism were embraced – such
as sexuality. This was the 1970s, and the 60s “hippie,” free love era had left
its mark.
In 1979, I applied
to graduate school at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, to study
pharmacology. While being interviewed, one of the professors asked me, “Are you
going to hang your diploma in the nursery?” At first I was confused, thinking of a green plants kind of
nursery. But then I realized he
was talking about me later having children. To this day, I can’t remember what my response was to that
question. Even though I had
learned that one of my professors was critical of women in his department, I
accepted my invitation and attended the school. There was one woman professor in the department, so I
imagined that there would be no problems.
Unfortunately, I did not feel welcome in the department and only stayed for
one semester. I still regret not finishing my PhD. True, I did raise five kids later on, but this example of
cultural relativism set me back.
From my perspective, a woman was fully capable of getting a higher
degree, even if she set it aside for a while to raise a family.
I appreciate the
need to respect other cultures.
However, it is difficult to conduct a course of study in a
multi-cultural classroom if one group is of the belief that plagiarism is
acceptable. Yet, I recall copying
large portions of the encyclopedia in 6th grade for reports. I see
the advantage of examples, and even copying good writing to learn to write is
not necessarily bad if kept within the context of learning. Perspective is a much-needed quality in
education. We should try to understand another person’s beliefs and respect
their culture. One area that often
fails the test is within the home school culture, where recently in Germany, a
family of homeschoolers were arrested and taken away from their parents for
three weeks. After the parents
agreed to send their children to the state-run schools, the children were
returned to their home (Home School Legal Defense Association, 2013). This is
an example of a country not applying the principle of cultural relativism to
their own people, and forcing their perspective on another person’s belief. Too often, cultural relativism is
applied discriminately – governments and schools choose what to accept and what
to reject.
References
Christensen, H.
T. (1960). Cultural relativism and premarital sex norms. American Sociological Review, 25(1), 31-39.
Gensler, H.
(2013). Cultural Relativism. In
Russ Shafer-Landau (Ed.), Ethical Theory:
An Anthology. (pp. 44-47). West Sussex, UK: Wiley & Blackwell. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LxKhwZjkVlIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA44&dq=cultural+relativism&ots=cfP_Uuys3B&sig=M6ChjL1GeLXN2lvvGnMpizJQX2s#v=onepage&q=cultural%20relativism&f=false
Home School Legal
Defense Association. (2013, Semptember 20). German officials return
homeschooled children to Dirk Wunderlich family on condition of school
attendance. The Christian Post.
Retrieved from http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/german-officials-return-homeschooled-children-to-dirk-wunderlich-family-on-condition-of-school-attendance-5255
Warnock, M.
(1979). Cultural relativism and
education. International Journal of Research and Method in Education. Westminster
Studies in Education (2) 1. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0140672790020103#.Uj4ObWTF1_I
