Tenille Jensen Blog 7

Like many countries, America has its own unique timeline of historical experiences that make it different from any other geographical location. Within that time line of American history, individual members in society have unique experience of that lived history over the course of generations and across gender and race. What really spoke to me was Andersons take on education and its role in creating the foundations for nationalism. Anderson states that nationalism ideology is instilled “through the mass media, the educational system, administrative regulations…” which creates commonalities across members of societies despite their differences. As simple as this concept seems, I had never thought about these simple components (that drive a nation-state) as central modern day educational mechanisms used to connect people to one another and the land.

A perfect example of building nationalism through education in Anderson’s chapter was Indonesia, a country comprised of hundreds of islands, ethnicities, languages, and religions. Despite such diversity, education has allowed this nations to create a sense of unity through a connected history which began in the government schools. Anderson states: “The government schools formed a colossal, highly rationalized, tightly centralized hierarch, structurally analogous to the state bureaucracy itself. Uniformed textbooks, standardized diplomas and teaching certificates, a strictly regulated gradation of age-groups, classes and instructional materials, in themselves created a self contained, coherent universe of experience. But no less important was the hierarchy’s geography.” I relate this to my elementary days when we would study American history. Although we all came from very different backgrounds, it gave my peers and I a better sense of why we would pledged allegiance to the American flag every morning. 

Similar to Indonesia, America is comprised of many distinct geographic locations. Although we are all tied to one large continent, we are separated by states lines, composed of varying customs, traditions, and accents. Through the use of education, we have created a sense of connectedness which has since been derived from a commonality of shared history, defined through our moments of nation state building during our colonial period. Education is key in created shared experiences over time.