Overview

Education in the United States is so eurocentric that many people do not even realize it. Classes in high school are offered in European history; the alternative is world history, as if that one continent offers more important lessons than the rest of the planet combined. At JMU, I am an English major with a concentration in world lit. This means that I am supposed to read literature from all over the world. Yet there has been a continual trend in my classes to offer books by an Asian author, an African author, a Caribbean author, a Middle Eastern author...hardly ever are there novels by Latin American authors. How can this be world literature? I've spoken about this to my professors, who have told me that there "just isn't time." So even in classes where we are supposed to learn about non-European perspectives, the understanding of "comparative literature" or "alternative canons" is still extremely questionable and problematic. Furthermore, by placing so much emphasis on European history and European ideals, the education system is creating the belief that European perspectives are best, and I feel that this cultivates intolerance and feelings of superiority towards non-Europeans. Therefore, this blog will be dedicated to looking for ways to fix eurocentrism in education and to developing ways to demonstrate the importance of this issue.