The Imperfect Education Essay, Research Paper

The Imperfect Education

Throughout the ages mankind has sought out enlightenment through instruction. Each person has a different position on what the ideal instruction is. Much of the universe? s history has fallen through the clefts due to the sexual and racial prejudices of past historiographers. Obtaining a good instruction is possible through linguistic communication cognition, dedication, and an every bit balanced diet of historical information. Malcolm X spent some clip in prison and became a really erudite individual because of it. Adrienne Rich believes that people should claim an instruction instead than have one. Edith Hamilton believes that people seeking an instruction should look towards the yesteryear as a footing for larning. Is it possible to obtain a perfect instruction? Anyone is capable of obtaining a good instruction, nevertheless it does non come easy, you must be willing to work for it.

Malcolm X spent a good trade of clip incarcerated, which gave him an chance to better himself through larning. Malcolm spent a good trade of clip reading but he frequently found himself being unable to grok the text. After much defeat he checked out a lexicon from the prison library. He beleived that the best thing he did was acquire a dictionary and larn some words. Malcolm began copying the dictionary page by page and analyzing what he had written until he had unlocked a New World of cognition. With a freshly broadened vocabulary Malcolm went in hunt of cognition. He would read anything he could acquire his custodies on. He was continuously reading, from the minute he woke up, to past the prison? s? visible radiations out? call at dark. His dedication to books proved to be a most valuable tool. Malcolm was an devouring pupil of Mr. Muhammad? s ( laminitis of the Black Muslims ) instructions. Mr. Muhammad told Malcolm of how history had been? whitened? due to the surplus of white historiographers. Malcolm saw that his cognition of history was uncomplete due to the deficiency of recorded black history. He decided to seek out a more defined history of his people. After a spot of a hunt he unearthed some books that provided a more elaborate history of non-whites. Through extended seeking Malcolm was able to larn about all of the universes people, non merely the Whites. If there was of all time a dedicated adult male Malcolm X was that adult male.

In a address given to the graduating category of 1977 at Douglas ( Women? s ) College, Adrienne Rich stated some of her positions on instruction. She strongly believed that a pupil must claim an instruction instead than merely merely having one. In her address she spoke of a duty to oneself to decline to allow other people think for them ; intending? larning to esteem and utilize your ain encephalons and inherent aptitudes ; hence, coping with difficult work? ( 58 ) . Language and personal idea were important. Rich suggested that there was a more indispensable experience that adult females owed themselves ; An experience that eventually depended on the person? s interactions with the universe. A individual must be dedicated and must take duty toward their ain ego. Rich believes that instruction was non complete due to the bulk of the histories were written by, typically white, work forces. Rich had frequently found herself? ? pouring thirstily over books with rubrics like: The Decent of Man ; Man and His Symbols ; Irrational Man ; The Phenomenon of Man ; The Future of Man? -books feigning to depict a? homo? world that does non include over one-half the human species? ( 57 ) . She stressed personal improvement for all people, adult females in peculiar. Harmonizing to Rich instruction was non complete due to several factors, nevertheless a individual could acquire a better grip on instruction with a dedication to personal idea.

Edith Hamilton believes that the true key to a more complete instruction lies in the yesteryear. Sh

vitamin E provinces that we should pattern our instruction after that of the Greeks. True freedom merely comes through instruction. The Athenians? were free because of a willing obeisance to jurisprudence, non merely to written, but still more the unwritten, kindness and compassion and unselfishness and the many qualities which can non be unforced, which depend on a adult male? s free pick, but without which work forces can non populate together. ? ( 755 ) The Athenians knew that before one could go educated he must foremost be true to his ain ego. Hamilton saw the Greeks as a really dedicated people. She talked of a poet 100s of old ages before Plato that had said, ? Before the Gatess of Excellence the high Gods, have placed perspiration. Long is the route thereto and steep and rough at first, But when the tallness is won, so is there ease. ? ( 755 ) If a individual wishes to come a more educated he must foremost set in the attempt and difficult work it requires. Hamilton believed that a true instruction was merely possible when people see that it has to make with individuals, alternatively of motions. She saw instruction as absolute pleasance. Hamilton knew that some of the past must be disregarded, but what was thrown off should be done carefully. Once history is lost, it is gone everlastingly and it can non be replaced. Harmonizing to Hamilton, the classics are really of import to modern instruction and unluckily they have about been wholly lost. The Greeks had a passion for believing. To them a good trade of instruction came from echt idea. Hamilton quotes Plato stating to? love what is beautiful and detest what is ugly. ? ( 752 ) Grecian kids were taught? to detest awkwardness and clumsiness ; they loved grace and practiced it. ? ( 752 ) A reasonably good thought, except that at first everyone is gawky and thoughts are awkward until we learn and pattern them. We can larn a batch from the ancient Greeks, nevertheless a complete instruction is compiled of much more than merely the yesteryear.

A perfect instruction is made up of many lending factors, perchance to many to conceive of.

The great minds of our clip keep a batch of the same rules and thoughts in common, even though their thoughts are really different. Malcolm X and Adrienne Rich are two wholly different people from two wholly different walks of life, nevertheless they both see that History is non complete due to the historiographer? s predisposed sexual and racial prejudices. Malcolm X, Adrienne Rich, and Edith Hamilton all know that linguistic communication is really of import to going an educated member of society. Can a individual of all time achieve a perfect instruction? Some people say yes, while other disagree. It all breaks down to how a individual defines a perfect instruction. For some people a perfect instruction may merely be geting adequate cognition to go skilled in a certain field of work. For others a perfect instruction can ne’er be reached due to the insufficiencies of society. It is non wholly possible to specify the perfect instruction because of our of all time altering society. It is frequently said that nil is perfect, that seems to keep true with instruction. It seems that Malcolm X, Adrienne Rich, and Edith Hamilton like so many of us have non wholly found what they are looking for, and it is really possible they ne’er will.

Hamilton, Edith. ? The Ever Present Past. ? The Harper and Row Reader: Broad Education Through Reading and Writing. 3rd Ed. Wayne C. Booth and Marshall W. Gregory. New York: Harper and Row, 1992. 750-757

Malcolm X. ? Freedom Through Learning to Read. ? The Harper and Row Reader: Broad Education Through Reading and Writing. 3rd Ed. Wayne C. Booth and Marshall W. Gregory. New York: Harper and Row, 1992. 47-54

Rich, Adrienne. ? Claiming an Education. ? The Harper and Row Reader: Broad Education Through Reading and Writing. 3rd Ed. Wayne C. Booth and Marshall W. Gregory. New York: Harper and Row, 1992. 56-59