Learning to Divide the World: Education at Empire's End

by John Willinsky

Author John Willinsky discusses how the discovery of the New World inspired European culture with "the desire to take hold of the world . . . to enumerate, order, identify, and differentiate". LEARNING TO DIVIDE THE WORLD raises urgent questions about how colonialism gave rise to powerful ideas of race, culture, and nation that continue to influence us--and the children we are educating. 11 photos.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Theory, Academic

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[HyeSu]

Discusses how the “Western” expeditions for accumulation of knowledge had educational implications that were imperialistic. The establishment of discourse perpetuates imperialistic notions!

[Tracy]

Worst book I ever had to read for classes! The author doesn't know how to puncuate properly - drives me batty. The Canadian author continually refers to the U.S. as America. If you know anything at all about Canadians/Canada, you know this is a huge no-no. It implies that the U.S. is the only country in both Americas with a right to call themselves Americans.

Aside from those issues, Willinsky takes such a black/white view of the world that he ends up alienating readers. I had to read this for a book club and that was everyone's concensus. His occasional good points get lost in his strident writing. Unfortunate, because he does make some excellent points.

Don't read this book! There are more concise and better written articles available on Eric or Jstor!

[Miranda Tsang]

Lesson: Question everything you know. Everything you know is Imperialism. Capital I.