From The Village To The City

The traditional educational anthropology study is mainly based on field work and literature. Compare to literature, visual materials contain information that can't be expressed by words, they are sometimes more objective and actual as they eliminate the uncertainty and illegibility of some language expression. This study adopted a visual anthropology research method. In order to discuss the relationship among modernity, school education and ethnic minority culture, this paper presents the feature and facts of the modernity in school education by analyzing a movie on ethnic education.《Children of Blessing》is a documentary about 45 Lahu girls from poor family and had dropped out of school because of poverty. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation they were sent to a school, formed a girl's class and have been receiving modern school education.This dissertation illustrates the reality the girls live in and outline a disciplined school life by detail four aspects: the school management towards time and space, student's daily discipline management and training on body. Schools work out a series of trivial rules to train the students by controlling the time and space, strengthening over the students' action. The controlling and the correcting on the students are going into their daily life. Base on the description and analyze, the dissertation indicates that discipline is the main feature of modern education. The modern school education system is applied to educatee in the main stream culture form, therefore, the educatee obtain the knowledge, skills, concept of value and behavior model requested by modern social life through this way. Though school education eliminates the traditional culture of educatee and limits the development of personality on certain extent, but it remodel an individual who can better adapt to the modern. The Lahu girls gain cultural and social capitals through school education which make them possible to be involved in the mainstream society. To people live in the social and cultural jumping-off, school education is a bridge to the modern life.