Momma's 'Factory': A Summary

Many people think of education as a ladder of opportunity, a way for them to advance themselves and to escape their adversity. “Education” is a collection of stories that relays the educational experiences of the authors and their families in the 1940s-1960s, a time when education and certain career opportunities were not readily available for everyone. For some, bias and discrimination discouraged them from getting access to education. Women were restrained by the conventional view that women should confine to “traditional” careers such as teaching or nursing. Sandy Garrett recounts how young women in the 1950s and 1960s essentially had three choices upon high school graduation: nurse, teacher, or homemaker in “Strength of a Tall Oaktree.”

That was illegal, so from time to time she would get in trouble with the government authorities and, as a result, I would go live with my grandparents. Things changed when I turned 14, 15 years old. My mother finally accepted partial help from my grandparents. She officially opened her business with my grandparents’ investments. From that time on we became a solid representation of the middle class. Thus, answering the question about how the information in this book relates to me and my life, I can certainly state that I have crossed the bridges from Upper Class to Poverty and from Poverty to Middle Class, where, I believe, I presently belong.

As a result, she lacked confidence in her education. She stated, “My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which the present day affords and which even our common schools now afford. I was never sent to any school; I was always sick.” Even though she did not attend a formal school it did not put her out of reach of a proper education (Peterson, 9).

Because of my parent’s humble beginnings in the south and being ever so present during the Civil Rights era, education was very important in my household. My father would often say that education and knowledge could never be taken away from you once you have acquired it. He himself, only had a 3rd grade formal education but yet at the same time was a modern day math wizard. He was the second to the oldest out of eleven children so he chose to continually work the fields so that his younger siblings didn’t have to and they would have the opportunity to attend school during the day. My mother continually pursued higher education and received her Associates of Arts degree as an adult. Later in life, as a senior citizen she also attended South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois and enrolled in a couple courses in Computer Training and

One point this author makes is his mother did not had a formal education, but had the ability to manage her time, multitask, and perform her job competently.

Eighteenth-century parents focused on instilling good habits of the domestic sphere into their children. A great representation of this attitude is Lydia Child. In her book, The Mother’s Book, Child states the importance of children knowing their duties, especially girls: “a knowledge of domestic duties is beyond all price to a woman” (source 2). Knowing duties helped children create good habits that would be beneficial to their future families, boys in providing, and girls in homemaking. Child’s view on literature being harmful also showed the emphasis on a domestic sphere: “by my own observation, I believe it to be the greatest evil now existing in education” (source 2). Her belief in its growing vanity caused her to stress parents to only allow the education of their children to be by themselves as it is a parent’s job to educate their children.

The fact that she continued to read to further her knowledge and to learn more did not faze her that not many other women were doing as she was. At a young age she knew that “settling” with the roles of women during this time was a life that she had to choose but she also wanted more. She wanted to educate herself and that she did through the works of her favorite author’s books and poems.

As a woman myself, it is hard to imagine a time when I would not have been allowed to attend college, let alone be writing this paper. As children most of us heard stories from our grandparent’s about what life was like they were young. I can remember laughing at the thought of “walking up hill both ways” to get to school. With the liberties American Women have today, it is easy to take for granted everything the women before us fought so hard for. It is easy to forget the treatment they suffered in their struggle to bring us to today. In this paper we will examine the lives, struggles, and small victories of women that have led us to

Boys, as young as seven years old, would live with masters who taught them how to trade, while girls would learn how to keep house from their mothers. Boys not only learned how to trade but also how to oversee farms and shops. Masters were also required to teach reading and writing alongside the occupational skills by several of the colonies. These masters were in loco parentis, which is in place of the child’s parents. Due to the fact that the educational guidance varied so drastically, the students did not reach their full potential. We needed a more formal structure.

Women were not allowed to have the same lives, jobs, or education as men; women’s responsibilities were solely inside their home with the children. Education for women was not taught the same because women were never expected to get a job that would help in providing for the family that they would have one day (Wolfe). Back in the 1930s, girls grew up learning all the basic chores of taking care of the household, and many helped take care of their younger siblings. Some girls grew up as women that never even learned how to read and write because of the focus on learning all the chores that women would be responsible for when they grew up. Women, just like slaves, were never given the chance to choose what they wanted for their own future instead

The ability to read and write has been considered the most powerful tool for emancipation and the realization of a couple of other things in the society. Education has been considered as the powerful tool against oppression and savagery, and as the adage confirms, “a pen is mightier than a sword.” Many writers out there have crusaded for the importance of education to the society and the importance of a nation educating its people, and especially the girls. Frederick Douglass is one writer from the America’s history of slavery who managed to learn to read and write under his master, his story “Learning to Read and Write,” explores his struggles as he tried to read and write under his master. Nicholas Kristof, a contemporary writer, penned an op-ed in the New York Times on “What’s So Scary About Smart Girls?” where he talks about the importance of educating the girl child. In this paper, we will compare and contrast the two articles, while drawing a cultural reference to the analysis, checking whether they are effective, current, or outdated.

“Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.” The predominately conservative attitudes of 1940s America left few options for women regarding education and employment. In her own words, Professor Eugenie Birch describes society’s expected trajectory of her own life: “either becoming a nun, teacher, secretary, or homemaker.” However, Birch – and her parents – had bigger plans. As the young children of a father working in the insurance industry and a homemaker mother who possessed a graduate degree of her own, Birch and her three siblings were instilled with the importance of postsecondary education. With few institutions allowing the matriculation

Being born and raise in the small isle of Antigua, there are not a lot of job opportunities to unskilled workers. As I grew up, I practiced to excel in my entire subject areas and do my best in all that I chose to do and I ended out on top. At the age of four, although a young kid, I was being molded into what will become the refined me. During that period, it proved no significance to me what happens educationally. At that age, the

During childhood, I took enjoyment in reading, school, and the arts. Escaping into books and my schoolwork would be my escape from real life. Since school was the priority in our household, there was little time for extracurricular activities. Similarly, through my high school years, determined to make my mother proud, I pushed myself to succeed. Above all else, college was the goal

In her teenage years in the 1950’s, her mother and father never emphasized the importance of her schoolwork. They were still very strict religiously, but believed that the woman should raise children in the house [[relate to watching tv and seeing a commercial for her period and saying that’s inappropriate on tv]]