This content downloaded from 24.86.162.185 on Tue, 31 May 2022 16:50:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Stephen Petrina, Assistant Professor University of British Columbia It's 1999: Are We Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? "What's past is prologue," Shakespeare wrote. Neither a historian nor a citizen of the 19th or 20th centuries, Shakespeare had a prescient grasp of humanity. In our time, we in the industrialized world walk the thin line between Shakespearean self- destruction and fulfillment. We've been wretched in our continuation of gross inequities between cultures, in our mis- management of our knowledge, and in our annihilation of much of our natural inheritance. We've also been able to recover from our most self-indulgent acts and are learning to celebrate our capacities for compassion, con- servation, and love. We are learning to attend to our pastalong with reassessing our myopic and often technocentric visions of the future. At this particular juncture in time, education is situated in a precarious position. With a checkered past of edu- cating for cultural imperialism, com- petitive, patriotic nationalism, religious intolerance, and "progress" at any ex- pense, it's uncertain whether schooling is part of the solution. In the United States, a separate system of industrial schools maintained separate funds of knowledge for African descendants, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Ameri- cans, on one side, and for European whites, generally, on the other side. Less racially diverse,Canada maintained a separate industrial education system for their aboriginal children that, as in the United States, was inferiortothatfor White children. The legal system changed segregation practices in both countries during the 1950s and 1960s, but by no means were conditions al- tered. A recent documentary by Jonathan Kozol showed that in the late 1990s, "savage inequalities" continue in the technology education of subur- ban and inner-city students of the United States. In the Cleveland area, for ex- ample, suburban districts such asMaple Heights enjoy new modular technol- ogy facilities and a large budget for consumable supplies. The Cleveland inner-city shopscontinue to limp along with leaky roofs, warped floors, and surplus drill presses from the 1920s. But along with racial inequalities, technology education reproduces gen- der and class inequities. A separate system of industrial education for boys and girls maintained gender differences in knowledge and mobility throughout this century. Generally and especially at the secondary level today, students and teachers in technology courses are male. The school system in both Canada and the United States continues to pro- vide separate education for college- bound and vocational students, dem- onstrating class differences rooted in century-old practices. Working classes continue to be shortchanged, and tech- 23