Recently, while moving some furniture, the Puerto Rican was frustrated because the old white guy kept doing crazy things—such as setting some items in the wrong area. If the old white guy had only used common sense, he would have realized that there was a better way to handle the items. Frequently, the old white guy is baffled by the assumptions that form the basis for the Puerto Rican’s actions. If he would only use common sense, the Puerto Rican would realize how sensible the old white guy was acting.

The Puerto Rican and the old white guy are about the same age and share many similar interests and life experiences. However, the Puerto Rican was raised by his poor immigrant grandparents in southwest Detroit. The old white guy grew up In Michigan’s thumb in a family that was wealthier and more socially influential than most of his peers. Although both men are educated, one went to culinary school and worked as a chef and the other went into a humanities doctoral program and teaches at a college.

Although both approach the world with common sense, they have little in common when forming the basic assumptions that drive their decisions.

As their lives have merged, they have had to be attentive to the fact that common sense is not universal; that their assumptions about how to interact with the world vary significantly. As a result, they have had to be more attentive to each other to make sure that they are communicating effectively. Common sense, they have found, is not so common even when people are acting in a rational way.

As a history professor, I—the old white guy—tell my students that they cannot be ethnocentric as they approach the course materials; that we cannot rely our twentieth century values and standards to judge the past. Yet, ethnocentrism is not simply a problem for historians. It is an issue that the Puerto Rican and I have to face regularly because we tend to view each other’s actions from the perspectives of our own cultural upbringings and too often assume the superiority of our own sense of common sense.

The more mindful I become of how ethnocentrism is a lived experience in our home, the less idiotic some of the Puerto Rican’s actions have become. Although his actions have not changed, my understanding of them has. And while I sometimes do not agree that his is the best way, I can appreciate why he does. The Puerto Rican would not explain the dynamics of our household in terms of mindfulness and ethnocentrism. However, he has come to a similar understanding about how I approach life even as he sighs about my lack of common sense.

This past week, as I walked into each of my classes on the first day, I had to be mindful of the role of ethnocentrism within the classroom community. My students are from a variety of backgrounds and have had markedly different educational experiences. Therefore, part of my job is to educate them into the expectations of the course. For example, prior to the beginning of the semester, I e-mail all of my students to give them some background about how the course will operate. This helps them develop an understanding that they cannot rely on previous educational experiences as the basis for the cultural norms I plan to establish within our classroom.

More importantly than the common sense my students use when they begin a new semester are the assumptions I make about students. Last week, I had an interesting discussion with a colleague about a lesson I had developed for students this semester; a lesson that asks them to choose an event and then to make socio-cultural and historical connections between that event and other events or issues. It is a deceptively difficult assignment and I was showing my colleague some of the activities I had developed to help students develop the skills they would need to be successful.

My colleague commented that one of the problems we have as members of the faculty is that we forget when we learned certain skills. For example, we both know how to make the connections I am asking of my students, but neither of us remembered when we learned the skills nor when the skills seemed natural to us. However, we both agreed that we did not come to college with these skills. Making such connections is common sense to us today, but we need to remember that there is nothing common about incorporating this advanced skill for our students whom have not yet learned it.

Professors who take an ethnocentric approach to teaching make their lives more difficult. By interpreting student actions based only on our experiences will lead to misunderstandings. And unless we mindfully reflect on our own assumptions about what students should know, it makes it more difficult to help students develop those skills we take for granted.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption: When writing about my partner, I seldom use his name or image. Therefore, I illustrated today’s posting with an image of two of our bilingual dogs.