Transcending Herbert Marcuse on Alienation, Art and the Humanities

Amidst his essay, “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto conceptualizes that our academic facilities are designed as laboratories with sole purpose of producing uniformed consumers and stationary victims through compulsory schooling. A way of cyphering through the breeding grounds of our population and plucking the most desirable of species whom are pre-selected for specific positions. Moreover, insuring that our industrialization is grown through our children’s forced intellect. Ultimately, connecting Gatto to the concept that we should determine our education within ourselves, and not the one that was institutionalized upon us.

Education is a contested field of study because its purpose relates to associated political implications of either providing curriculum that critiques and analyzes history of the Americas, or, that which emphasizes and promotes a support of the American meritocracy and the righteousness of a representative democracy. Paulo Freire (2000) made the distinction that education is a combative arena, and that there are many different arguments jockeying for power. As a result of the contention, student-centered decisions are not always made and oftentimes the decisions are ones that benefit the political arena far more than the religious or social one.

Edmundson, Mark. "On the Uses of a Liberal Education." From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and a Reader. Ed. Stuart Greene and April Lidindsky. Bedford/ St. Martin’s: New York, 2008. 322-337. Print

Higher education in modern day America has become a debated topic, with some saying that it is not worth it due to the debt it leaves upon leaving, and some saying that it opens opportunities that surpass the results of obtaining one. A resulting view from this conflict is that certain forms of education aren’t as beneficial as others. A primary example of one of these less valuable educations is the study of Liberal Arts. Author Sanford J. Ungar discredits this view in his article The New Liberal Arts where he discusses the many misconceptions that have come to form this interpretation. To convince the reader of these misunderstandings, Ungar uses the appeals of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, with heavy appeal to logic (Logos) over the other two. Each misconception uses and focuses on more of one appeal than others, and by doing this, he is very successful in influencing the reader into considering that these misunderstandings are present.

In the 1997 article, “On The Uses of a Liberal Education: As a Weapon In the Hands of the Restless Poor,” published by Harper’s Magazine, the social critic Earl Shorris described how political power could be achieved by a rather non-vocational educational discipline, the humanities. He emphasizes on how the knowledge of a liberal Education can be used as a form of weapon within the lives for the poor.

Diligence can first be seen in Seneca’s, “On Liberal and Vocational Studies” in this work Seneca argues that what one gains from a liberal arts education is that this type of education prepares the heart for virtue. This

John Spayde’s article What Does it Mean to Be Educated (June 1998) offers insight into the world of philosophical questions and studies of our educational system. Spayde shares and responds to the opinions of different novelists, journalists, professors, and colleges that have taken a stance on what it means to be educated. His article briefly covers topics such as; educational decisions, financial division, entitlement, humanities, and technology. Spayde also discusses the importance of being connected and learning from a real-life experience. Spayde believes that having a connection to the world around you allows you to use any experience as a learning mechanism to further your education.

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.

Education is meant to broaden the minds of incoming generations to the diverse cultures and aspects of the world. While its purpose is meant to open up horizons, it has also held up the task of oppressing opposing thoughts and judgments. Author James Baldwin exposes this truth in his article, “A Talk to Teachers,” as he chastises the education system’s contradicting actions inasmuch as the support of an all-encompassing education while scorning unconventional thinking. Baldwin’s purpose to confront the antithetical activity to hopefully change the system’s ways is attempted by persuading teachers who “deal with the minds and hearts of young people” that a paradox of education occurs when students develop a conscience--they become “at war” with society--is valid in that education should allow development for individual thoughts and varied opinions to challenge for the reconstruction of society’s oppressive nature.

Education is an important aspect in the lives of many individuals. Education is often seen as a means to better oneself. With education, a whole new world can be opened up to individuals. For African Americans education is key to achieving a variety of things in life. During the days of slavery, African Americans were not allowed to be educated. It was frowned upon and strictly discouraged because slave masters knew that they could not dominate an educated person. Any slave caught trying to read or write was punished. There are many individuals whose main purpose is to fight for the rights and equality of African Americans and fighting for the right to be educated was one of these goals. African Americans alike wanted to be educated because they know it would lead to progress and a better overall situation. Now in today’s society we see that even though many before us has fought for the right to be educated some do not see it as a privilege. In this paper, the views of Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois and Oliver Cromwell Cox will be examined in regards to their thoughts on education.

In this paper you will learn my insights into my life. I will touch on my formal and informal education. I will reflect on the four Breadth areas of Ottawa University’s program of liberal arts studies. Future goals, philosophy, values, and obstacles will be discussed. This will include significant people and events that have happened in my life.

Education has unequivocally remained one of the most important and ever-changing aspects of society. With the advent of new decades and time periods, educating our youth has remained one of the most important tasks to undertake. The changing needs of students and the modernisation of classic teaching methods have caused quite a shift in terms of pedagogy. Throughout the civil rights movement, especially, there was much conversation about education in terms of how black youth were taught and about equality in terms of tutelage. The civil rights movement evoked a glut of strong feelings concerning the flawed and contradictory educational system in America. During the whole of the 20th century (and late 19th century), it seems, a lot was written about in regards to how the youth-black youth especially-were being educated; many called upon the idea that blacks and whites weren’t being educated the same and that there was a significant imbalance in terms of equality. One of the most important citations in the matter of education is one by Jacob Bronowski, “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” The redolent outlook this quote brings to education rings true to this time period of the 20th century in which education was being drastically changed and reworked.

The goal of education is to learn, and in this process of learning and being educated there are some greater goals that are served. Education in Thomas More’s Utopia seems to cater to a larger goal, which is to create virtuous persons and citizens, as they are responsible for attaining a flourishing human community. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest there seems to be an underlying idea of a connection between education and a sense of social control. The idea of instilling among his subjects a sense of obedience and influencing their knowledge through education, in order to bring about a feeling of belonging to a nation is prevalent in The Tempest. On one hand, education serves the purpose of creating citizens of a flourishing society and on the

The aim of this assignment is to present an exploration and explanation of the process of transformation in and through education. This will be shown by looking at some scenes from the films, Freedom Writers and To Sir with Love. To begin with I want to consider what we understand by ‘education’

Bowles and Gintis felt it was important to write this article, because they believe that the politics of education are better understood in terms of the need for social control in an unequal and rapidly changing economic order. This point is illustrated on page 396 when the authors say, “The unequal