I was reading an article about the equality in education in America. Upon reading it, I can't help but relate to what I have just read as one of the topics in free speech about racial inequality and the African American experience as they were fighting to end slavery. The article on freedom, which says "here we intend to do our duty as men that love justice and hate oppression," gave me a different perspective on the freedom of women in the modern times, which also relates to equality, the equality in education.
Ideas abouat getting an education, or claiming to have one, gives me a glimpse of myself, a woman in an institution of higher education here in the United States. It gives me a different reflection of the human spirit. It fires my inspiration to life’s possibilities in the academia in spite of the fact that I am experiencing hardship. It encourages me to persist just thinking about what the African Americans have experienced before they got to where they are now. My life has been hard pressed by poverty and physical handicap. And now I as try to climb the ladder of the academia in spite of my feelings of inadequacy, I just know that I can never be content with the old compliant style of my parents’ era. I must do my duty and claim my education for myself in order to make a difference in the generations to come.
Ideas abouat getting an education, or claiming to have one, gives me a glimpse of myself, a woman in an institution of higher education here in the United States. It gives me a different reflection of the human spirit. It fires my inspiration to life’s possibilities in the academia in spite of the fact that I am experiencing hardship. It encourages me to persist just thinking about what the African Americans have experienced before they got to where they are now. My life has been hard pressed by poverty and physical handicap. And now I as try to climb the ladder of the academia in spite of my feelings of inadequacy, I just know that I can never be content with the old compliant style of my parents’ era. I must do my duty and claim my education for myself in order to make a difference in the generations to come.
Seeing the clarity of the concept in my head about "claiming an education" by the author Adrienne Rich, I am trying to relate equality in our modern times. The idea of a dynamic unwritten contract between the teacher and the student where women must claim an education instead of thinking of simply receiving one make things clear for me. She defines "to claim” as “to assert in the face of possible contradiction.” I have just realized that I must take responsibility for myself in all my interactions with the world as well as with myself. If I think of positive ideas in my head that I can have a little piece of the academic world, then who knows, maybe I can.
I think, what equality for women in education in our modern times means I must claim what belongs to me. If I truly want to learn, it's all up to me. I cannot be complacent; I must be responsible to do my part, to do my duty. Like the freedom fighters who thought that "although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming of it."
The reading about women's education and the freedom articles of the 19th century that I have just finished reading for my speech class gave me the courage to be different from what I was. It is alright not to be continually available to the demands of others, for they should respect my sense of purpose as a person with a goal. So now with my new commitment to finishing my education, to which I claim all responsibility, I know that I cannot be satisfied again with my old, passive way.
The reading about women's education and the freedom articles of the 19th century that I have just finished reading for my speech class gave me the courage to be different from what I was. It is alright not to be continually available to the demands of others, for they should respect my sense of purpose as a person with a goal. So now with my new commitment to finishing my education, to which I claim all responsibility, I know that I cannot be satisfied again with my old, passive way.
2 comments:
Our group talked about the equality of women in our seminar last Wednesday, I agree with what you are saying here; women should be equal but they also have to take hold of what they are given.
The world's changed people. The stakes are higher, the danger is greater, we have to be equal to them. But my comment is not about equality. That's an old, worn down story. My comment is about goals.
Yeah, sure you can set goals, get an education and "try to take hold of it" but always try to remember at what cost. Set goals and follow through on them. You transfom yourself from one of life's spectator into a real participant. But always remember, its not whether you won the race but how you played the game. Great leaders of the past did not become great by doing things only for themselves but because they want to make a better world for our future. They did not sacrifice their personal responsiblity to reach their goals, instead, they carry it allong with them. For if you sacrifice these responsibilities then you stop having meaning. You stop being a person but simply be dispesable faceless cog in the machinery of society.
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