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Most people dedicate a big portion of their life slaving away in education when there are so many other things that they would rather be doing. So why does a person put up with the long hours and the headaches? What is the importance of education? In Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson,” the main character and narrator, Sylvia, could care less about school and her new teacher, Miss Moore. The kids in her class are made up of her neighborhood friends and the children do not actually attend a real school but are forced to meet up at this woman’s mail box everyday instead. This story is focused around Miss Moore’s battle to teach her kids, especially the most stubborn one, Sylvia, the importance of education. The theme of the story is …show more content…
Miss Moore has a specific lesson for that day that she is trying to get the children to discern and comprehend for themselves. “Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven. What do you think?” (Bambara 174). “What do you think?” is the question Miss Moore asks to get the children’s brains working and learning for themselves. Inquiring this question encourages the children to consider new questions and broaden the topic of the lesson. She gives them a single idea to trigger their own personal interests and topics in which she can elaborate on. This helps display that the big lesson of the day is not the only lesson that the children get taught. Cartwright goes on to say in his analysis, “Although Miss Moore’s lesson for the day—the conflict between the rich and the poor and the economic injustice it reveals—is obviously significant, the story makes it clearly and explicitly only one lesson among many” (Cartwright 507). Miss Moore may have a specific lesson for the children that day, but behind one significant lesson are many others. Miss Moore wants the children to find all of these lessons and see how they can help their lives to be more
Toni Cade Bambara’s ‘The Lesson’ starts with the Sylvia’s description about one African-American’s appearance, who is called Miss Moore. The story is focused on the the event of field trip that Miss Moore conducted for her students one day. She takes her students to pricy toy store which is called F.A.O. Schwartz, to let them see the reality of gap between poor and rich. The story took place in 1970s which was during the movements for civil and social rights, equality and justice swept the United States. According to university of California, during this time, the opportunity to African American was really limited in a lot of aspects, including the education. People often tend to interpret the most important main point of this
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto urges Americans to see the school system as it really is: testing facilities for young minds, with teachers who are pounding into student 's brains what society wants. Gatto first explains that he taught for 30 years at the best and worst schools in Manhattan. He claims to have firsthand experience of the boredom that students and teachers struggle with. Gatto believes that schooling is not necessary, and there are many successful people that were self-educated. He then explains the history and importance of mandatory schooling.
The lessons that are taught through experience are usually the ones that stick with children for a lifetime. In Toni Cade Bambara's “The Lesson”, Miss Moore, a prominent character in the story, teaches a lesson to underprivileged children growing up in Harlem. Bambara's work is described as “stories [that] portray women who struggle with issues and learn from them.” (Vertreace, Par. 48) Bambara uses Miss Moore and her characteristics to teach Sylvia and the other children about social inequality and the idea of pursuing personal aspirations regardless of social status. Miss Moore has many admirable characteristics; she's intelligent, patient and caring.
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
The theme in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara appears to be a lesson on
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
To begin with, Miss Moore, Sylvia, and the other children are from the “slums”. However, what differentiate Miss Moore and everyone else in the neighborhood is that she has a college education, and speaks Standard English. As a result, Miss Moore plays the role as teacher to the neighborhood children. Most of the children from the neighborhood were poverty stricken and had a ghetto vernacular. Especially, Sylvia, who mouth is atrocious and has a strong animosity towards Miss Moore. For instance,“Miss Moore was her name. The only woman on the block with no first name. And she was black as hell, cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky.” Moreover, Miss Moore has high expectations of the children, so she takes them on a trip outside the hood to unveil the real world. Before going on the trip to the toy store Miss Moore tried to explain the value of money to the children. For example, “So we heading down the street and she’s boring us silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money ain’t divided up right in this country.” At first, Sylvia is t...
Going to college has become an American dream. The desire to gain an education, in order to live a fulfilled life, leads to working a dream job and having the house on the corner with the white picket fence. However, achieving the American dream of obtaining a college degree is not as easy as one may think. To live the American dream students need to have a deep desire to learn and educate themselves to become more thoroughly educated and knowledgeable. Both Russel Baker’s essay “School vs. Education” and Mary Sherry’s’ essay “In Praise of the F Word” have agreed with points in the fact that education begins earlier in life. But when does education begin? The first easy lessons in life begin from learning how to roll, crawl, walk, and talk. I remember when I was about three years old and learned how to ride my first bike with training wheels. Although I didn’t learn overnight, after much practice, I became a pro. We are born to learn. However, active parenting, a supportive community, a robust economy, and prepared teachers impact the process of education and the importance
The narrator of the story is a young, black girl name Sylvia and the story is also told from her perspective. The setting is not clear. Perhaps it started in Harlem and then to downtown Manhattan on Fifth Avenue and the time of the story took place is also unclear. Bambara uses a great deal of characterization to describe the characters in the story. For example, Bambara describes Miss Moore as “black as hell” (Bambara 330), “cept her feet, which were fish-white and spooky” (Bambara 330), and “looked like she was going to church” (Bambara 330). She later tells us that she’s been to college and her state of mind is she believes it’s her responsibility for the children’s education. The plot started when Miss Moore rounded up all of the children by the mailbox. Then she gets the kids in a cab and took them to Fifth Avenue to a big toy store where the rich people would shop. The story then continues with the children and Miss Moore in the toy store and the kids looking around and noticing they can’t afford anything. Which will soon end the plot with a lesson that society is not fair, “that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to purse happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?”(Bambara 330). Hence, the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach these
It is argued that there are 4 elements critical to the effectiveness of the instructional process: 1. the learner, 2. the teacher, 3. the home, and 4. the academic programs and the physical facilities at the school. These are interdependent and interactive and must function in unison for effective teaching to take place. The teacher's primary responsibility is to help the learner grow intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially. Therefore, teachers should be competent, dedicated, and committed to the profession of teaching and to the service of the students. Teachers should have adequate academic and professional preparation and the requisite traits of character. Teachers should be respected, appreciated, and sumptuously remunerated to enable them to devote themselves with total concentration to the task of teaching. A home where education is valued contributes in immeasurable ways to the quality of learning of the child. Finally, the school should have innovative, creative, differentiated, and challenging academic programs."</cite> For example, if the schools physical facilities aren't in a good, safe condition, the learner will have a hard time learning because his mind will be on his own personal safety and well being. A lot of the inner city schools in the United States are older than the teachers that teach in them. Some schools are so overc...
The greatest woman I’ve ever known always told me that education was important…and she was right. I came from a small town in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri prior to becoming a teenager. At the time, education was abundant in St. Ann, where I lived. I attended a decent elementary school and made good grades, despite mathematics not being my cup of tea. I have
Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning. Noam Chomsky describes the purpose of education as follows, “Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own.” After all, education is a lifelong journey. It is not a single destination or a simple transaction. Education equals power, the power to create and fulfill your own destiny. Mark Van Doren, a profound influence on generations of students, described teaching as “the art of assisting discovery.”
The importance and worth of education is first conveyed at the beginning of the film through the conflicts and differences between Erin, several of the other teachers and members of the school board. An extract from one of the first dialogues between Erin and Margaret, is the first sign of how education is going to be perceived throughout the film. The quote, “By the time you’re defending a kid in a courtroom, the battle’s already lost. I think the real fighting should happen here, in the classroom,” said by Erin to Margaret, evidently displays her view that acquiring an education is vital to secure a sound and prosperous future. By “fighting” I believe Erin is trying to indicate her belief that guiding some students along the correct path can ...
I believe educators are one of the most important careers out there, without them where would we be today? Would you be reading this paper? Would you still be able to read, write, or have an educated conversation? Would you know how to pay for things at the grocery store, and know if you’re receiving the correct change back? Would you know how to tell time, so you can manage your day? When I look back to my young developing stages in life, I always ask myself where would I be today if it wasn’t for my teachers? Teachers are the ones who are building our future generations. Preparing children and teens for higher education. Also playing a huge part in shaping children’s lives, enlightening them, and educating them about society and the world around them; the types of things that a parent doesn’t have time for, or just lacks the knowledge of. I think teachers are what help make this world go round. We simply go to school to learn, and get educated, so that someday we can get a job, or start a business to supply for our families and our self. How would we acq...