Education In Brave New World

Our achievement ideology is based on the idea that the U.S. is full of opportunity and anyone can accomplish success in our society if they work hard enough. Many grow up thinking education is the ladder that will allow for this social mobility and all you have to do is be willing to work hard enough to earn it. But what about children who grow up thinking differently? Why do some strive for high paying careers while others refuse school and are seemingly ok with staying working class? MacLeod challenges the notion that America is the land of opportunity with research he conducted while in college. He uses the research of several reproduction theorists to show that schools not only are not great equalizers, as most think, but

While reading chapters 1-3 of Brave New World, I was shocked, angered, and fascinated by the aspects of the world created by Huxley. I was shocked that the children are taught nothing of the past. In chapter 3, Mustapha Mond says “History is bunk.” He is implying that history is nonsense and that the society flourishes when living in the present rather than bothering to learn the past. I was irritated by the fact that the lower classes are given less oxygen as an embryo to purposefully make them underdeveloped and weak. In particular, the phrase “Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par” made me realize the cruelty underlying in the World State(Huxley 6). Despite these negative feelings, I have to admit that the society fascinates me. The class system is strictly separated by colors, occupations, and intelligence, science has advanced to the point that children are all taught and created in a factory

The education system in Brave New World as dreary and cruel as it seems is not far from the education system of our society. Creativity is not really promoted any longer in our society, which is comparable to Brave New World. The strict educational system and heavy gauntlet on creativity is a present day example of conditioning. The Brave New World uses conditioning to train the children of their society into learning specific subjects or forcibly generating a hatred for certain subjects or objects. Both systems condition children to know only what the administrators feel is suited. It is really quite scary to believe that the entire society is potentially being denied important

The premature mass education of children exposes them to a predetermined ideology and imprisons them to the immoral laws of society. Huxley illustrates this by describing the Brave New World’s process of hypnopaedia, a sleep-invoked teaching method. While this meets the Central Intelligence Agency’s criteria of brainwashing, “mass education,” it goes beyond the bare minimal definition (United States 3). Hypnopaedia takes advantage of the naïve and influenceable mind of young children. By teaching children phrases such as, “I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta” and “Gammas are stupid,” World Controllers are establishing what they consider the correct social hierarchy (Huxley 27). This restricts the individual citizen’s ability to establish their own beliefs and feelings toward other people. When combined with

Northrop Frye 's the Educated Imagination, published in 1963, attempts to bring out the meaning and effect of possessing an educated imagination in contrast to its opposite. Dr. Frye analyses how his theory advances society’s interests and overcomes its limits through the three levels of the human mind. In his essay, the three levels are broken down in a detailed manner, which links it directly its thesis. Frye presents definitive answers to his questions in the beginning of his essay, “What good is the study of literature? Does it help us to think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it?” Conclusively, the education of an individual’s mind is critical to understand the world we live in and to the advancement of our society. Educating the mind consists of absorbing and modifying literature, understanding and evolving art, and placing science within context without having data as the boundaries of our imagination.

Knowledge is power. Using knowledge, people can reshape society and the world as a whole, changing it for the better. However, gaining access to the necessary wealth of information requires a full education: people should be taught multiple ideologies and topics from an unbiased perspective. They must receive access to various viewpoints in their entirety. Teaching only one worldview strips students of their ability to truly analyze the world and its issues, because they cannot look beyond the one restrictive narrative they learned and therefore cannot develop their own perspective. Censorship hinders schools, institutions with the purpose of informing students and helping them develop their beliefs. Therefore, schools should not practice censorship when selecting literature for students because censorship obscures the purpose of literature, because censorship fails to expose students to a variety of ideas, and because censorship removes students’ ability to develop unique opinions and worldviews; education should provide an unbiased view of the world and many ideologies, so students can take their own stance on various issues rather than blindly following what they learn.

Many cultures express to people at a young age those with “book smarts” are far more intelligent than those who are “street smart.” It is a common misconception that one must rely solely on academia to be considered an intellectual. In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff proposes, “street smarts beat out book smarts” (268). Learning from everyday life, whether good or bad, and cultivating ways to adapt or overcome life’s obstacles is a true sign of intelligence. Life experiences contribute to the evolution of character that defines people. Intelligence should not be solely based on institutional learning but in conjunction with real life experiences and self-development from personal interests.

In Hidden Intellectuals, Gerald Graff writes how “street smart” kids are actually smart, but schools do not play to their strengths. To persuade readers, the author uses emotional connection to childhood, and logical reasoning. He also points out various ways schools could change the way they teach students. Graff’s main target audience throughout the article is school educators and younger generations of learners.

In “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff argues that street smart kids can do better in school if teachers had gave them the opportunity to perform their intelligence on academic work. It will be helpful if school encouraged students to learn the subject they are interested in. Graff share his adolescent experience to support this argument. He was passionate about sport. Until entered college, he only read things about sports. This habit unwittingly developed his literacy, analyzing and debate skills. In the neighborhood he grew up, to maintain the class boundary between upper class and lower class, it was better to be book smart. However, he was struggle about whether to be intelligent or not. Because he wanted to be smart and impress the

Wendy Kopp believed that it was the responsibility of everyone to stop children from being uneducated. As Wendy grew up she felt that since she was a woman there would be limits but as the years passed by she learned she wasn’t limited. She attended Princeton as a public policy major and was involved in many activities. She met a variety of people during her college years and learned more about students who come from poor communities and found that they have lower academic achievement because they were less prepared for the challenges ahead. Wendy eventually used this same idea in her senior thesis.

The world we live in, is a world that is constantly changing. The change occurs so fast we don’t even see it happening. It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily rush of life we bypass the drastic change. This alteration is happening on every level of society. In the book Brave New World it’s a warning of what our world could become like if we’re not carful. Warnings of everyone having to be the same, people being classified into “casts” and, most importantly and currently happening, growing up too fast. Personally it’s a scary fact. Kids maturing at such a rapid rate. Good news, we can prevent and change this crisis for the better before it becomes worse.

In a society where a powerful authority controls civilization and no one is free to choose what they can and can’t do, rebellious violence is futile. Because of this, literature can be one of the strongest weapons a person can wield. In the novels Kindred by Octavia Butler and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the protagonists Dana and John both use literacy in order to challenge the ideals of the powerful authorities from their respective societies; however, their attempts end up being mostly in vain.

In the novel Brave New World (BNW) by Aldous Huxley, education and creative expression aren’t exactly the way today’s society teaches education and self-expression. BNW contains similar issues that can be comparable and/or contrasted related to today’s society. In Brave New World, creativity and self-expression doesn’t exist. Having individualism allows people to have the right to freely express themselves. Freely expressing ideas and emotions will lead to instability which would go against the society’s moto, “…COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABIBILTY.”(pg.3).

Education is what shapes the youth of minds. When societies provide different education, it affects the entire society. “A nation’s brilliance and ability to prosper is directly dependent upon its people edification.” (Mackey) People of Brave New World and the people of today are educated in different ways. Because of this, the major difference between today’s society and the society in the novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, is the system of education.

First, Huxley’s Brave New World does an exceptional job of showing what a society is like when its citizens do not think for themselves. In their society, children are not “born”, but instead they are fertilized in test tubes and the government decides what level of intelligence they will have; from Epsilons who can only understand basic commands to Alphas who are taught in a separate school from other children and are able to learn and specialize in different subjects. Although, all