All posts by j.wu10

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Peer Response Post

The purpose of education

This is a peer response for Angela Chan’s free post “Education for Money and Living”. I agree with Angela that I also want my education to do both: make good money from something I like and give me a way to survive in this society. In the Bach example, Angela talks about how education (self-education) teaches Bach to find a job and success in his career. The main goal of Bach is to make money for a desired living through his interested field. Interestingly, I find that many of the college students nowadays care more about how their education can get them a better job (higher salary) rather than their real interest in their majors. Or in other cases, their family members and friends’ influent them to decide what they want to study. I personally think to study at a field of you interest is very important for future success. First, you have to really work hard to be “better than others”; second, if you don’t like your job, is going to be a torture because you have to keep doing the thing you don’t like for another forty years.

In another example of the purpose of education that Angela mentions, the monster in Frankenstein learns to adapt to human culture by observing his surround and mimic other humans. The monster learns to keep warm, find food and shelter while he explores the nature. His education teaches him the skills he needs to survive. Compare the monster’s education to our college experience, our studies in school is more like a preparation to the real world, while the monster is already be in the real world before he can get ready for it. I have the same feeling like Angela that I also don’t want my school education goes to a waste. I wish I could apply my calculus skill to calculate my budget for shopping, but that’s not the case. A lot of the subjects we learn right now are completely not related  to our future career, whether you want to be an accountant or a doctor. However, the time that we spend on these subjects are giving us a new choice for our future because the more you know and more skill you have, you will become more prepare for the real life challenge that is not so far before us.

Peer Response Post

Response to “Background and Education”

In response to Eric’s “Background and Education”, I agree with Eric that nowadays people judge each other by their social background. Just like Eric mentions in his free post, people tends to respect more of those who studied at an Ivy League (the “Better schools”) than people who attend a normal school. There are two reasons why people think the Ivy League students are superior. First, there is an assumption that Ivy League students are generally smarter than regular students, although they might in fact pursuing the same degree; second, Ivy League students are wealthier then regular students, thus they have more power in the society.

Compare this social phenomenon to Harry Potter and the prison of the Azkaban, Malfoy always look down at Harry and his friends, make joke about how poor the Weasley’s family is, and laugh at Hermione’s Mangal parents. Malfoy is so ignorance because Malfoy’s family is at the higher social position and therefore has more influence in their society, thus makes him thinks he is superior to the three of them. (Harry, Ron and Hermione). However, the truth is that Harry and Hermione are more talented than Malfoy in magic skills, he doesn’t have anything to be show off except his family name.

In Eric’s example of Professor Lupin’s werewolf identity forced him to resign from his position is a good example of how people judge the book by its cover. Professor Lupin is a caring character, although he can be dangerous transform into a werewolf, he takes potion to keep his mind clear and stay away from his students during his transformation. Parents don’t allow their children to take classes with professor Lupin because they judge his identity over what his personality. However, it is understandable because parents never get a chance to understand professor Lupin.

Introduction Exercise #2

Introduction 2

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The monster in Frankenstein expresses an intensive desire to become a man throughout the novel, although he has been rejected due to his hideous appearance by the human society multiple times. However, his passionate desire drives him to explore further into the human world without fail and educates himself to be an intellectual individual. By understanding Rousseau’s Treatise on Education, where he emphasizes his pupil should learn only what truly interested him, we can better understand why the monster in Frankenstein can be able to quickly adapt to the human culture. According to Rousseau, no one including his father can force his pupil to learn the topic he hates because he will learn nothing from it. The monster gains a wealth of knowledge about human being because he is truly fascinated by the human world. In order to illustrate that the desire for knowledge and the passion in the subject play a significant role in the success in education, we will first look at how the monster is expelled from the village but still want to be one of them—human. Then, we will discuss about how he learns the human language and human relationship through continuous observation of mankind. He tries to close to them with a kind heart but get rejected again due to his monstrous appearance. At last, we will talk about how the monster realizes his place in the society after he learns all about human value and the conduct of mankind. Knowledge gives him loneness and strong desire for companionship, which makes him closer to human. Nevertheless, the monster learns to speak, read, write all by himself, with full passion to learn everything about human being. The monster is so successful in attaining his education because he is truly interested in his subject and his voluntary action to learn allows him to develop internal maturity that makes him become closer to a man.

Thesis Exercise #2

voluntary education

By understanding Rousseau’s Treatise on Education, where he emphasizes his pupil should learn only what truly interested him. No one, including his father, can force him to learn the topic he hates because he will learn nothing from it. Through Rousseau’s theory, we can better understand why the monster in Frankenstein can be able to adapt to the human culture. The monster learns to speak, read and write all by himself, with full passion to learn everything about human being. The monster is so successful in attaining his education because he is truly interested in his subject and his voluntary action to learn allows him to develop internal maturity that makes him become closer to a man.

Free post

There’s no hope in a racist society

In the racist society in A Lesson Before Dying, Jefferson, a black man, is found guilty of murder although we, as reader, do not know exactly what happened in the scene. This case is sent to the court, but however, Jefferson’s trial is somewhat predetermined. In a racist society, the white men always think they are superior to the blacks, and they believe black men don’t deserve to be better. In the justice system, the law is not helping Jefferson because his lawyer, the judge, and other member of the jury are all white. His trial is not by his peers, but his “enemy”. Jefferson’s legal right has taken away before he gets to prove his innocence. In addition, Jefferson’s lawyer defends him by saying negative thing about Jefferson to prove Jefferson is too stupid to convict the crime. The lawyer is not using evidence to prove Jefferson’s innocence; rather, he calls Jefferson a hog, which denies his humanity.

In another scenario, the discrimination in the school system is further reflects the inequality in a racist society. Not only the black students do not get enough material in the classroom, the superintendent, Dr. Morgan, in Grant’s class suggest to sent the black children to the field to earn money. He thinks the black children shouldn’t be in the classroom; they are born to work for the whites. Although slavery is banned, Dr. Morgan still sees the black children as physical laborer and he implies that the black children should be working in the field as when they were salves.

Through the lens post

The White Men’s Cruelty

In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass uses his life of slavery to describe his experience and witness of the white man’s cruelty. There is a huge inequality between White American and African American and the relationship seems impossible to overturn. Not only the whites are superior, the white man is the owner to the black slave. Therefore, the white man is justified to do anything to his slave because the slave is considered his property. As Douglass records, “I have seen him [master] whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time… He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity” (Douglass, 2). It is obvious that the white man master does not treat his slave as a human being. In addition, the cruelty of slavery seems endless that children are force to be separated from their mother. Family is forced to destroy its bonds.

Through the lens of Frederick Douglass, there are some similar between Douglass narrative and Malcolm X’s autobiography. Malcolm’s self-education through reading books gives him the knowledge of African American’s history. Malcolm points out that “…history had been “whitened”— when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out” (Malcolm X, 3). He means that the history books are in favor to white men and the books describe slavery as if it is normal. Malcolm reacts to this with complete shock and he continue to study more about the “sin and the blood on the white man’s hands”. Malcolm X reads about “black slave women tied up and flogged with whips; of black mothers watching their babies being dragged off, never to be seen by their mothers again” (Malcolm X, 3). Malcolm’s narrative is similar to Douglass’s personal story in a way that both of them think slavery is an horrible act in history, and white men’s violent and cruelty toward slave can never to justify.

Close Reading Post

education: An escape from poverty

The community has a large impact on individual identity because individual develops their personal identity by the influence of their surrounding. In Black Shack Alley, Zobel’s daily interactions with his grandmother, neighbors, and friends have significant impacts on young Zobel’s life. One character that influences Zobel the most would be his grandmother. M’man Tine plays the role of the mother in Zobel’s childhood, she takes care of him and gives him motherly advices. Everyday before she sends Zobel to school, she would repeat “don’t get your clothes all torn, don’t rip off your buttons to play marbles with, don’t run too fast….” (80), and Zobel does the best he can to follow her advices. In addition, M’man Tine’s belief matters so much to Zobel because she is his guardian and he looks up to her just like any other children would look up to their parents. M’man Tine believes education is the only way to overcome poverty. This idea that education is the way to success is deeply implanted into young Zobel’s mind; she tells him with the knowledge to knowing the alphabet and writes some words, Zobel would have the chance to become a factory worker instead of working in the plantation (91). In the community that they live in, the factory works are in higher social ladder than workers in the plantation; to have a chance to work in a factory is the beginning of the escape from poverty. M’man Tine and the community value so much about education. The atmosphere also makes Zobel to believe school is important, although Zobel doesn’t fully understand the value of education when he is still young. When he grows older, he finally realizes the privilege of being in school, thus leads to his hard work to be success in scholarship examination. Furthermore, Zobel’s good work in school gives him opportunity to success, in his own words, “the opportunity[education] to give my parent’s profession [farmer] never again presented itself” (136). Education gives Zobel the opportunity to change his fate.

Theory Check-In

practical education

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“From experience: in that all our knowledge is founded” (Locke,1). It could not have been said any better by one of the greatest philosophers in history. According to Locke, knowledge is derived from experiences in one’s life and allows a person to nurture their mind. Common knowledge in particular, can be better understood and learned through personal observations, sensations towards observations, and actions. It is essential for a person to put use of their skills of learning because it leads to a deeper understanding of their world.  We believe that practical education is the best way to develop a person’s knowledge because it enables the personal to have an enjoyable educational experience, the concepts are better stored in long-term memory and it allows for an unrestricted, free-thinking learning experience.

The scope of practical education is very wide, it can be an educational trip, experiment, or even daily interaction. Practical education concerns the process of learning through observations and actions, rather than through the classic institutionalized way of learning, which is sitting in a classroom and hearing about it from someone else. However, can we put our learning and how we end up perceiving the world in the hands of people in an infamously flawed educational system? Are we really setting ourselves up for success? Students are provided with knowledge rather than wisdom. It is typical for students to be forced to cram and memorize material to pass a test, just to forget everything right after the exam is over. Students have to try to memorize things they read on paper. However, with hands-on learning, they will automatically remember things just like how their other life experiences are stored in their memory.

Memorization of plain text does not bring any further understanding of the concept unless we manage to transfer the knowledge to action. In Emile: or A Treatise on Education, Rousseau believes that books are the least useful instrument to teach his pupil because he think “they[books] only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about” (Rousseau, 20). What he is saying is that when we “learn” about certain topics in books, we can only relay the information we have read, perhaps in most cases without a true understanding of what we are talking about. Therefore, “learning” from books can be deemed more memorization than actual conceptual understanding. One example that supports real life experience being essential in obtaining knowledge is found in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock.” (Shelly, 13) According to Shelly, the monster was using his environment as a way to gain knowledge. He didn’t know how to read or write, however, he was able to observe his surroundings in order to communicate with others. He didn’t have to go through years of schooling, yet he was able to be intellectually on par with society.  

When education is received through practical methods, it not only enables for a more efficient learning method, but also enhances sensibility. Observation is the most valuable tool for understanding. As John Locke once said “our observation, about sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds, perceived and reflected on by ourselves is that which supplies our understandings with all the materials of thinking.” (Locke, 2) Observations allow us to understand things, and think about them through our own scope. That is one thing that is lacking in institutional education, the freedom to think through your own scope; everyone is always forced to think the way textbooks and teachers want them to think, which may result in hindered learning.

Free post

My top three virtues

I found Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues are very interesting and useful because I agree with him on most of them (not necessarily the order). For me, my top three virtues according from Franklin’s list is 1. Moderation, 2. Silence, 3. Resolution. Franklin defines moderation as to avoid extremes and that is what I always believe the right thing to do. I think no matter what I do I should always control myself from going to far or over react. Even with anger, I think people should control themselves from being extreme because that will bring them to the unwanted situation or even regret in the future. Second, Franklin defines silence as to avoid trifling conversation. I think what he means is similar to a Chinese proverb “diseases enter by the mouth; misfortunes issue from it.” This proverb means that don’t just say whatever you want, be aware of who is listening and what is the consequence. A “careless talk” can either hurt other people or put yourself in trouble. Lastly, it’s resolution. Franklin means to do what you resolve even you fail. I always believe to never give up is a good thing to do because the more you try, the more you gain from trying even though you fail, you still learn something from it.