The Importance Of Creating A More Just, Free, And Sustainable World

It brings up the question: what would a woman that only has a future to be a housewife or housekeeper do with an education? By not taking a woman seriously when she wants to attend school shows that it will be highly likely that an education would be of irrelevant use.

Why is education important to society? Would one be able to read without a successful teacher teaching one how to read? Education is a key that holds the ability to open many doors - doors which open into vast rooms of knowledge, love, experience, discovery, and dreams. Education is an essential to human living and a fulfilling life, but what happens when the path one takes is not the choice that one personally wants? In “University”, written by Leona Gom, and “Warren Pryor”, written by Alden Nowlan, the poems present both negative and positive effects of education on society.

Frederick Douglass, an African American slave, searches for liberation against the shackles of slavery through education; as told in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative in a Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass portrays education as a paradox; knowledge brings him both great joy and great pain. Learning opens up new worlds for Douglass, and he becomes obsessed with the possibility of freedom. At the same time, he envies his fellow slaves for their ignorance. They do not understand what their enslavers have stolen from them. Douglass grapples with the hopelessness of his plight, but knowledge empowers him enough to set himself free from a life of benightedness, and to share that knowledge with others.

In the article, “Low-Income Students Seeking the Education They Need to Move Up,” Emily Yount writes about the way that poverty affects people entering higher education. In her story, a girl named Chelsea is a single mom trying to get her education, and the path is difficult for her. In this paper, I will discuss both my mother and Chelsea and show the ways that it is mainly the single moms that struggle the most in this society. Regardless if you’re rich or poor, your economic status always is important. A student’s economic status has a great impact and can affect her depending on the decisions she makes.

History shows that oppression reduces the ability for learning, creativity and analytical thinking to occur. When living an oppressed life one can be very disheartened, dehumanized and feel hopeless about ever acquiring freedom, but education is a way to break free. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the Remembering Our Indian School Days exhibit at the Heard Museum, and my own experiences show how education can be a means of liberating one’s self. Engaging in reading, writing, and analytical thinking serves not only as intellectual freedom, but it can also lead to actual freedom from an oppressive or limiting lifestyle.

“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.

Education is something that has historically been a valuable asset to asserting one’s power and place in

“Claiming an Education” by Adrienne Rich is about rejecting the sexist views that men's minds are more valuable and intellectual than women’s minds. In “Claiming an Education,” women are taught to take their education seriously because even though men have the majority of say in things, women are climbing the ranks. An important idea in this essay is the difference between claiming and receiving. By claiming an education, you are taking the education into rightful owner.

As Adrienne Rich spoke to a college full of women, she continuously pointed out that education is not something to take for granted, and should not be looked at passively. Education is a responsibility she remarked, “Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions.” On the other hand, the Youtube video shows a student who does not take responsibility for their education, and basically exemplifies the student Adrienne Rich advises against. During the time of Adrienne Rich’s speech in the 1970’s, The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

After stating these points she continues on to discuss the importance of women having the same opportunities as men. One of the first opportunities being the choice to pursue the education she desires and not one that be designated to her, “The education that will fit her to discharge the duties in the largest sphere of human usefulness, will best fit her for whatever special work she may be compelled to do.” She states that, “The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her

In Adrienne Rich’s convocation address, “Claiming an Education”, she utilizes antithetical comparisons to convey her belief that, as a student, we must “claim” our knowledge while in school instead of merely attending class and expecting to “receive” an education. (Rich 98) Rich’s comparison between being “spoon-fed” information and actively pursuing an education is powerful because her idea encourages us to consider the possibilities that emerge when we decide to take learning into our own hands. Rich’s speech has influenced me to take responsibility for myself in not only my education, but my personal life as well. For example, now that I am away from home and living in my own dorm room, I have to independently address needs such as

Adrienne Rich writes about what education is for women. “Beyond literacy, you have the privilege of training and tools which can allow you to go beyond the content of your education and re-educate yourselves – to debrief yourselves, we might call it, of the false messages of your education in this culture, the messages telling you that women have not really cared about power of learning or creative opportunities because of a psychobiological need to serve men and produce children; that only a few atypical women have been exceptions to this rule; the messages telling you that woman’s experience is neither normative nor central to human experience” (Rich, 4). Rich’s definition of a woman’s education is to understand and redefine their own women’s

Murray answers the argument that offering education to woman will lead them to neglect their "domestic employments" by exploiting the inequality and unequal educational opportunities given to women. She begins her argument by asking for a reason in which a gender of the same species might be born more superior to the other. Murray questions whether the reason why men are mentally superior than women is because of nature, or because men are born with the opportunity to learn. As a result, Murray believes it is unfair to come to the conclusion that women are deficient or unequal to men because the opportunity to obtain knowledge had been denied to women. Therefore, women are not born unequal to men. Murray acknowledges that the reason behind the inequality of the sexes is due to the difference in which men and women are raised.

Kate wants to break away from the notion that woman cannot be educated: “I think the better educated a woman is, the better she can fulfil her home duties, especially in the care and management of the health of her family, and the proper training of her sons and daughters as good citizens” (Curzon 144) Kate shows that a woman should indeed be educated; however, she still hangs onto the idea that women through education can improve their home duties, not that she can excel in the public sphere. Bird states: “Curzon held two opposing views simultaneously. She believed in equality and argued for women's equal social and political status with men, while at the same time they espoused gender difference by idealizing women's maternal nature in order to justify their right to participate in the public sphere” (Bird 17) This ties to Kate's desire to become a free individual. Kate is aware of her status as a women socially and politically, thus she uses logic to signify that a woman cannot excel far with education due to the patriarchal system she lives in. Kate does explain why a women should be educated, although conforming to the patriarchal society by saying that education is what helps a women strengthen her household duties truly undermines her intentions. However at the same time this signifies her realizing that education is important, but with it, she will not be able to do

Education is one of the most essential necessities of a personal life because without education, we would not have a brighter future. In two essays “Learning to Read and Write” and “A Homemade Education”, Malcolm and Douglass describe what they have gone through in order to become more successful in their pursuits in life. While Malcolm X lived part of his life in prison, he spent his time writing numerous definitions from a dictionary amongst the walls and tables. The elements of the dictionary motivated him to not only become a free man, but a well educated one at that. Douglass, who also taught himself, began his life in slavery. But after a series of attempts, he escapes from slavery and pursues into his