Summary:
As with the opinion of societal cultures and hierarchies, the opinion as to what constitutes "knowledge" is ever changing. bell hooks' "Keeping Close To Home: Class and Education" and Mike Rose's "Lilia" both illustrate the vivid and interpretable changes one endures with education. While new generations have consistently restructured knowledge, and while the educational experience at times has been culturally compromised, the silent but obvious gap through generations has led to a more humanistic and altruistic behavioral evolution.
Where does knowledge begin? The creation and acquisition of knowledge is a difficult and complex topic to grasp. Is it an innate process we are born with or an ability that is learned and acquired through experience? My opinion of knowledge has varied tremendously through out years of exposure from an uneducated regurgitation of subject matter discussed in a room of four white walls and pretentious brats to an understanding of nontraditional, analytic insight gained from a vast exposure to dissimilar cultures and strong models.
Throughout our life stages, many things become clear and broadened with maturity and the tenacity to conquer that unfamiliarity through risk taking. These experiences and other relationships have showed me that, like emotion knowledge can be created and destroyed, depending on the subject matter. The ever-changing opinion as to what is "knowledge" transforms along with the changing opinion of cultures and hierarchies in our society. The readings of Bell hook "Keeping Close To Home: Class and Education" and that of Mike Rose's "Lilia" delivered vivid and interpretable changes one endures with education. With renovation by new generations, knowledge has been consistently reconstructed and the educational experience at times has proven to be culturally compromised. However, it is that silent but obvious gap through generations that has led to a more humanistic and altruistic behavioral evolution.
Knowledge can be obtained and suppressed through the educational system. In what I have named the "finance method" of education, where the students are simply paying vessels that await a professor to fill them with cookie-cut information or for those impoverished to stand humble to whether government funding is available for them to continue or not is clearly where our system fails as a society. Information like that described by Lilia, ."..there was a pattern where they put me in those really basic classes for five years. I guess there was a pattern where they put me in those really basic classes and then decided I would go through my elementary school years in those classes. I didn't learn to read or write" (19). Lilia's language and culture barrier were never addressed by the administration but through her desire to learn.
Like that of Lilia, bell also held a reverence about her background and its short comings, "No wonder our working class parents from poor backgrounds feared our entry into such a world, intuiting perhaps that we might learn to be ashamed of where we had come from, that we might never return home, or come back only to lord it over them" (24). It was clear throughout the journey that even with advanced education; a student is deprived of their cultural knowledge. There is mention of her feelings of frustration to express insight about the contorted beliefs. However, her feelings lay dormant throughout her time at Stanford. It is those suppressed feelings that guided her achievements.
Lilia's experience of perseverance gained through hardships and doubt, has led me to feel more inspired to believe in my actions and to be more tenacious in achieving my goals. Coming from a single-parent home, I have overcome many obstacles and statistics. The rigidity that the military brought onto me had given me feelings of desperation and doubt. However, like Lilia I persevered through the harassment and unfamiliarity with a bright outlook and sense of achievement. Her perseverance shines through the students she mentors that came from similar situations. I have not had the opportunity to mentor any students but I am an active volunteer in my community. Lilia's actions express gratitude and a way of sharing her success and faith in others. I feel faith was a main component in many of my experiences and it led me too pursuing my education.
The journey in bell hook's essay was that of perseverance and closure. I see her writing as a therapy and a way of giving back. I also, have experienced a therapeutic feeling through writing. Divulging very personal and genuine feelings are monumental when dealing with identity issues. I am similar to bell where I feel I do not mesh with the normal scenery. I am mixed with two very different ethnicities, which has put me in uneasy situations with peers. I dealt with similar issues of conforming to the homogenous environment or standing and embracing my uniqueness as an adolescent and in some instances as an adult. Nevertheless, it is through expression, education, and openness that I too have been able to close these chapters.
In conclusion, I see that through difficulty proceeds triumph...personal and communal. Each of these women established a plan, and followed through no matter the obstacle. The categorical or societal differences empowered them to steadily move forward with their achievements. Their tenacity inspires many like me and others who partake in their stories. These women's stories and many like them continue to evolve our very individualistic society into one of virtues of humanity and philanthropy. They continue to forgive but not forget through educating and motivating others, which helps to close the gap.
This is the complete article, containing 836 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
