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Gloria Anzaldua The Power Of Education

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Education is often perceived as a path to a successful career, but according to journalist, Chris Hedges, the true purpose of education is to “create minds, not careers.” Although today, the importance of education and its purpose is not valued as high as it should be. So does the ability to critique and challenge truly come from education and literacy? I would argue that this is true based on the writings from Chris Hedges, Gloria Anzaldua and Theresa Perry. How education is able to “create minds” has shown up many times in the lives of those of the past. Although today, according to Hedges (2009), “We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separate …show more content…

But she also speaks to her feelings towards writing and the power it has. Anzaldua (1980) explains that “Writing is dangerous because we are afraid of what the writing reveals: the fears, the angers, the strengths of a woman under a triple or quadruple oppression. Yet in that very act lies our survival because a woman who writes has power. And a woman with power is feared.” (p. 171). Here, Anzaldua explains how she has experienced writing to be a way of survival for women because of the power writing gives. Another story that also reveals the power from reading and writing was the experience of Frederick Douglass. In Theresa Perry’s Young, Gifted, and Black (2003), she mentions the effect reading had on Douglass when she writes, “As Mr. Auld had predicted, the more he read, the more restless, discontent, and unhappy he became” (p. 16). Perry uses this experience to explain how through learning to read, Frederick Douglass was able to see the actual situation he was in and to then desire a better future for himself, freedom. These experiences that authors, Gloria Anzaldua and Theresa Perry share provide strong examples of the power that education truly …show more content…

Gloria Anzaldua describes how writing was what she needed in order to “survive”, since writing was what gave her power as a woman. Writing is something that comes with an education, and through the life of Gloria Anzaldua she was able to prove that through writing she had gained power and the ability to speak to the truth of the oppression she had endured as a woman. The experience of Frederick Douglass, as Theresa Perry has told it, allowed him to desire freedom as a slave. Without having learned how to read, Douglass would not have been able to understand how he was being treated as a slave, which connects back to how Chris Hedges believes that the lack of literacy is what prevents us from seeing the truth. If the stories hold to be true, then it is decidedly so that the power to create minds is what education has to

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In Frederick Douglass’s essay “Learning to Read and Write” he explains many of the deterrents he faced as a slave, including the challenges of reading and writing in this era. Owners prohibited their slaves to have an education. Why would they not want their slaves to have an education? Being educated meant you had the power of knowledge. Slaves lacked the basic concept of understanding and power, therefore they couldn’t challenge the practice of slavery in a political manner.

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In the essays, “The Joy of Reading and Writing; Superman and Me” and Frederick Douglass’s “Chapter 7: Learning to Read and Write”, Sherman Alexie and Frederick Douglass write about their hardships and challenges they faced while learning how to read and write due to their social economic status. Despite the fact that Alexie and Douglass are incredibly different people, they both use education for freedom and a sense of self-worth. Alexie and Douglass both struggled to receive education and struggled mentally and physically because of their social economic status. Although, Alexie and Douglass both experienced these hardships, they saw the world through a totally different perspective. Alexie saw the world in a more positive manner than Douglass

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Frederick Douglass wrote the article “Learning to Read and Write”. Douglass was a slave trying to learn to read and write. Douglass talks about how he was successful in learning to read and write, for him to carry out this, he had to resort to different strategies. Douglass was making friends of all the boys, he traded bread for knowledge, he didn’t give them up when they helped him with learning to read and write, so then Douglass and the boys would talk to each other about how they wish to be free. The book Columbian Orator was used in schoolrooms in the nineteenth century to learn how to read and speak, it also taught people how to read and write, it was a big part of Douglass’ plan to learn to read and write.

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Many of us take education for granted and don’t learn to our fullest potential, but Fredrick Douglass soaked in every piece of information up because he knew it was his way out. “Learning to Read and Write” is a famous article based on what Fredrick Douglass went through to earn a valuable education while being enslaved. Author Fredrick Douglass, wrote “Learning to Read and Write”, published in 1845. Throughout the article, he takes us through different events he goes through while being enslaved. Douglass begins building his credibility with personal facts and successfully demonstrating logic and pathos appeal.

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“Learning to Read and Write” is a narrative writing that successfully grabbed the attention of readers in the context of society in Maryland between 1830–1840. Frederick Douglass, the author of the writing, was born a slave in 1818 in Maryland (Douglass 100). At that time, a slave who was able to read and write was unacceptable and like a crime in society. Douglass, an ambitious and strong-minded man, would learn to do both read and write. That was amazing!

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African-American slaves were forbidden to obtain the knowledge of being able to read or write, stemming from the fear of white masters that educated slaves will overpower them. Douglass managed to learn to read by bribing poor and hungry white boys into teaching him in exchange for bits of bread. Douglass illustrates his thirst for literacy through “[The] bread [he] used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give [him] that more valuable bread of knowledge” (pg 23). This reveals how much Douglass valued education and took advantage of all the knowledge he had access to. Today’s youth, especially the ones belonging to a minority

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“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass is a personal narrative which describes a specific time in his childhood when he was learning to read and write. Born as a slave in the pre-Civil War south, Douglass was not expected to be literate. However, through strong ambition, Douglass overcame restrictions and stereotypes placed on slaves and taught himself to read and write. Later in his life, Frederick Douglass wrote down this story in his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. Today, students and adults can enjoy this narrative on how he overcame the struggles of learning how to read and write.

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Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.

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