Education is a powerful tool one only gains through a willing desire to accomplish something and better themselves. Acquiring an education may come easy to some, but for others it’s a struggle. Take Sherman Alexie for example, he grew up in a poor family on an Indian reservation where “the children were expected to be stupid.” There were no expectations for him accept to be like everyone else. But he wasn’t. He was a reader and he read everything! Reading those books opened him up to a whole different world, and a different way of thinking. He could understand the ways of life outside of the reservation because he was exposing himself to life through his readings.
Saving ones life through education is what Sherman Alexie did with his life, and is trying to accomplish to this day with children on reservations. In him going to the reservation and teaching those children how to write poems and short stories he feels he is making a difference, he is saving their lives. He is giving them an opportunity to see beyond the reservation and into their future.
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ReplyDeleteI too feel that education is the most powerful tool on earth. I also agree that education may be the hardest to accomplish. some people may not have access to education to learn and make a change in their life. But I do feel that even if people are denied formal education that they have the oportunity to seek informal education in any way they can just like alexie did by just reading books.
I agree; we often think about education in formal settings, but so much of what we learn happens outside of "school." This view of education has the potential to empower people; we will look to multiple places and people to learn, and we will take it upon ourselves to serve as educators within our community.
ReplyDeleteLauren :)
Education is empowering, however there are still places where it is denied its citizens.
ReplyDeleteAlexie shows us his determination to change his life through reading, but what if those books his father had in the house were not there?
wow very good point i feel we all start learn from the moment we are born. it is what we are given to us as tools to learn is what makes us.in his case books. it is different for everyone and no one is the same.
ReplyDeleteKelly wrote: "Acquiring an education may come easy to some, but for others it’s a struggle." It may be a struggle but those who posses an internal drive, like Alexie, can make education more than just being book smart. He learned about the world through those books, maybe something he never would have learned in school.
ReplyDeleteMegan
Sometimes education is a struggle for other people but Alexie shows a good example of him coming into the schools and being a role model to theose children. He is saving their lives to make them look outside the reservation at a better future.
ReplyDeleteWe all learn from what we're exposed to. It does not necessary means that you can only learn from going to school. We start learning from the day we're born. It might not be the learning we would used to operate a machine but a knowledge that gets us by everyday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the feed back!
ReplyDeleteThe comment from marynicole rose a good question: what if those books his father had in the house, were never there? would he been the avid reader he was as a child. probably not, where else would he have been exposed to so many books? But he had it in him and I think he would have found his love of reading and writing eventually.