Guest speaker encourages the study of anthropology
On National Anthropology Day, Feb. 17, Durga Kale, Ph.D student at University of Calgary, spoke on the lack of high school anthropology classes through a Zoom lecture. Within her speech, Kale gave an overview of anthropology and provided avenues for the students to explore. The NPHS anthropology class is the only high school anthropology and comparative religions class in Ventura County.
Many high schools do not include anthropology courses due to its unmentioned prerequisites, causing students to become unaware of the subject. “I think there is a real need to have a sneak peek for anthropology in school and high school levels in order to bridge the gap,” Kale said. “We often speak about translating our knowledge from the classroom into the real world and informing our viewpoint from the real world and bringing it to the class, so anthropology is doing all of that in action.”
Richard Bradley, teacher, instructs the anthropology course at NPHS and recently received the CVUSD February 2022 teacher of the month award. “We are looking at scientific data and research, things like genetics, history, philosophy, art, music, there’s so many things that go into [anthropology],” Bradley said. “We look at archaeology, cultural anthology, we do a lot of examinations to identify what makes up one’s individual identity, and identity is not just who you are but also who you are now compared to those who are making the rules for society.”
Catherine Gennette, senior, is an aspiring anthropology major and took the class to gain further insight on the subject. “It’s like politics except instead of politics where you believe in your open personal ways and your own personal ethics, anthropology looks at the subject’s beliefs so whatever you’re studying you have to look through their perspective but completely unbiased which I feel is very important for today’s culture and society.” Gennette said.
Altogether, anthropology can be extremely eye opening and introduce students to many foreign concepts. “Anthropology builds a new perspective to look at things around us and having those courses in school and high schools will not be a synthetic insertion into the school curriculum but it will be enhancing and connecting various dots that we study separately through various courses,” Kale said.
