Triple Takes on Curricular Worlds

Chapter ONE. Boundaries

INTRODUCTION Mary WE LIVE IN AN increasingly boundary-conscious world, despite this being the next millennium, despite the discourse on otherness and difference, despite the best teaching in the field of curriculum studies to the contrary. Our quagmire in Iraq and in trouble spots around the globe indicates this. We Americans, led by an administration that touts itself as the supreme arbiter of dispute and injustice, commit boundary crossings in order to maintain world supremacy, fight terrorism, and plunder oil fields not within our boundaries. Martha, writing of the history of oppression in Sri Lanka by foreign rule, observes that boundaries are necessary for the colonial enterprise. In order— yes, in Order—I believe the phrase is “to liberate” oppressed people, colonists devise political strategies to justify invasion. The classical liberal idea of “liberation ” necessarily carries the boundary baggage: wealthy foreigners go into (preemptively strike) lands afar and disrupt the life patterns of indigenous people.The boundary is between colonizer and colonized, wealthy and (often) poor, third world and first world, them and us—all for noble sounding goals. “In the name of progress and development, boundaries are held in place by ideological markers,” Martha observes. Trouble is, rich oil fields or other glittering natural resources are seldom mentioned as the idea behind invasion. If I sound bitter, it is because I am appalled by the headlines—“More soldiers die in Iraq”—that have been the continual mantra since Saddam was toppled. Boundaries, Delese argues, are ingrained in our systems, especially our medical system, as a management device of “socialization.” Early on in their training, medical students are introduced to a little procedure that many of us 5 ONE Boundaries may not know: the lesson of “the first patient.” This is a cadaver—dead flesh—on which students can carve, amputate, and inspect. Students are implicitly trained to think of their patients as metaphoric cadavers. Patients become embalmed Its, objectified by the medical gaze. Further citing the thick boundary that separates doctors from patients, Delese deconstructs the signification of the white coat. Meant to convey sanitation, immunity, and professionalism, the coat literally invests the wearer with title, power, and authority—all the labels of whiteness. I often amuse myself by reimagining the protocol of naming, which goes along with the white coat. Doctor comes into examination room,“Hello, Mary, my name is Dr. Robert Wilson.” Patient responds, “Hi there, Rob. My name is Dr. Doll.” In our classrooms, boundaries tend to be strictly enforced, especially for elementary students or cadaver trainees. What this means is that the process of differentiating Them from Us reinforces the stereotypes that prop up gender , class, identity, and power boundaries. Fixed boundaries reify. Classroom architecture abets in this process: even in the art culture, where I teach, the podium occupies a phallic central position, in front of which are chairs neatly lined in rows. What this instantiates, of course, is the false belief that the one who stands knows more, is mightier, deserves obedience from those who sit. One talks, others listen. My take on boundaries, like that of my collaborators, questions line drawing . I discuss the figures of trickster, fool, jester, and clown in earlier societies, whose function it was to trouble the middle region between borders. Between the standing and the sitting lies a fertile space. This is the territory of greatest potential movement that draws on the very energy of that which it seeks to exclude. Border figures like fools unfix categories and taunt rigidity, the sort that believes we must be carefully taught (as the song goes) to hate the people our grandparents hate. Indeed, in the new millennium there still exist stone-age attitudes, even literal stoning. Something there is that loves a wall. We should be so lucky in today’s strife-ridden world to encourage a permeability of boundaries. We should be so lucky to act more knowingly, like fools. THROUGH THICK AND THIN: BOUNDARIES IN MEDICINE Delese He longed to soothe her, not with drugs, not with advice, but with simple, kindly words. —Chekhov, “A Doctor’s Visit” (2003, p. 176) A border is a margin, edge, brink, rim, brim, or simply the line that separates two things. Some of these boundaries are useful, even necessary, as when a TRIPLE TAKES ON CURRICULAR WORLDS 6 mother says protectively to her child,“Now don’t go out into the street,” or when a zoning board protects...