Explore4

Exploration #4 Describe in detail one direct or indirect experience you have had where the question of valuing “the old” (as part of what Martin calls “cultural wealth”) arose and how the question was resolved. Refer to the Martin reading (attached).

Dr. Meskill: This exploration has really been a struggle for me, because I just can't connect a personal experience with what I read. I've read the article 2 times, going on 3 so I just need to start. So I will just explain one train of thought that I experienced that may be reflective of cultural wealth. I have four children, all boys. I came to a point in my life where I realized that all the skills and knowledge that my mother and grandmother had taught me as a young girl, I would never be sharing with a daughter. I was not unhappy not to have had a daughter. I love boys. But, I felt as if I was some how the "end of the road" for things that would only be taught and shared with a girl. I valued this breadth of knowledge, shared over countless hours spent with my elders, as cultural wealth. And, even as I write this I feel a sadness because it feels like a part of my grandmother and my mother is forever lost in the future. I have nieces, but this wealth is something that is shared in stages and over time spent together, and they live at a distance. My grandparents and at least one generation prior, were farmers in northern New York. My mother was a home economist, they no longer offer degrees in this. So, is there wealth in these things for the future, perhaps not. Yet I still feel compelled that it is important. I think because of the richness it has brought to my life. The comfort and the skils that I continue to find enriching to my life and to my home. These pieces of wealth vary from how to shuck fresh peas, how to stitch a perfect leaf in embroidery, to a love of good books and strong coffee, and how to play 2-handed, 3-handed, and 4-handed pinochle. These things have a heritage in them that is unique to my lineage and to the lineage of my children, and some of it is simply learning skills for "living a good life". I can't explain it any clearer than that. So, perhaps the lack of a future for what I value as cultural wealth, becomes a liability for me because I realize that all of this accumulated learning can only be limited in its continuation to enrich the lives of my children. I did, teach my oldest son to sew with a sewing machine and he also has the love of books. So I suppose a few of these things are not particularly gender-based. But, many of these things tend to be. I hope this is a fair synthesis of cultural wealth and cultural liability.