Thursday, September 13, 2007
I'm waiting for permission from LMN to post a link to her blog. But I hope she doesn't mind this tiny excerpt that I so want to share with you.
Those are the things that my grandmother and grandfather needed to come back to, those thousand small things that make the Philippines the Philippines, that make it the only place like it in the world. That make it...home.
You may not understand why language like this makes me cry. It's alright.
Yesterday, I showed Rabbit Proof Fence in class -- about three Australian aboriginal girls who walked 1,500 miles for 9weeks to escape from the mission school and return Home to Jigalong. We have just finished reading The Racial Contract and the students are struggling to understand what Mills calls the cognitive and moral dysfunction of white folks. Such harsh language, they say. But the students who understand the entire thesis of Mills also understand why the girls in the film chose to escape the mission school and take on the 1500 mile walk Home rather than be educated (as domestic workers) and act obsequiously for the rest of their lives.
Those are the things that my grandmother and grandfather needed to come back to, those thousand small things that make the Philippines the Philippines, that make it the only place like it in the world. That make it...home.
You may not understand why language like this makes me cry. It's alright.
Yesterday, I showed Rabbit Proof Fence in class -- about three Australian aboriginal girls who walked 1,500 miles for 9weeks to escape from the mission school and return Home to Jigalong. We have just finished reading The Racial Contract and the students are struggling to understand what Mills calls the cognitive and moral dysfunction of white folks. Such harsh language, they say. But the students who understand the entire thesis of Mills also understand why the girls in the film chose to escape the mission school and take on the 1500 mile walk Home rather than be educated (as domestic workers) and act obsequiously for the rest of their lives.
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