Educating Rita
Although Rita knows that intellectual enlightenment is important, to Rita, education provides much more to her in Willy Russell’s Educating Rita. Rita’s education is not restricted to scholastic learning alone, her transformation from the uneducated Rita to the educated Susan is all encompassing. Rita sees and understands the importance of being well educated, but for Rita, education helps her to overcome her background and break away from the traditional role expected of a woman in the 1970s. Rita has set herself on a course of self-discovery, she has a determination to control her own life and make her own choices. Rita believes it is education that will give her these choices. Rita knows that the value of education goes far beyond simple intellectual enlightenment. Education entirely changes Rita which, though she is prepared for a change, effects her life enormously.
Rita’s background has held her back and put her at a disadvantage. There was a great deal of research done in the 1970s to show that middle class children were far more likely to do well at school and to go on to university than working-class children like Rita. Rita’s schooling disadvantage is shown in her recollection of school life:
“…borin’, ripped-up books, broken glass everywhere, knives an’ fights. An’ that was just in the staffroom. Nah, they tried their best I suppose, always tellin’ us we stood more of a chance if we studied. But studyin’ was just for the whimps, wasn’t it? See, if I’d started takin’ school seriously I would have had to become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed.” (Act 1, Scene 2, p17)
Rita felt the need to conform to the way everyone around her lived their lives until she realised that there was a way out. The class antagonism that pressures Rita can be seen through language misunderstandings between Frank and Rita:
Frank: You are?
Rita: What am I?
Frank: Pardon?
Rita: What?
Frank: Now you are?
Rita: I’m a what? (Act 1, Scene 2, pp2-3)
Education is the only way Rita can fulfil her desire to overcome the working class background she has been born into.
Rita feels that through education she can break away from the traditional expectations placed on a working class woman in the 70s. Pressures and influences on Rita are mostly from her family, in particular her husband.
“I told him I’d only have a baby when I had choice.
To women in the early 1900s, education was a vital investment in achieving a career and having a well-sustained lifestyle. In Sara's situation, attending college meant exploring the American culture and furthering her studies in teaching. On pages 210-213, Sara demonstrates her excitement for attending college. She states, "This was the beauty for which I had always longed for!" (211). Later into the novel, Sara reflects on her experiences while attending school. Her experience in being around people her age was a way for her to understand the American culture and know that she was now a person of reason. In effect, Sara provides an insight into her overall journey in college and life in the novel by mentioning "Now I saw them treasure chests of insight. What countless years that I had thought so black, so barren, so thwarted with want!"
Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.
However, what Toni Cade Bambara actually wanted to tell the readers was the importance of an education and the value of thinking, by showing the contrast of educational background between Miss Moore and Sylvia, and the process that Sylvia gets into the knowledge of the world.
Hulga has been to college for many years, earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Coming from such a rural background, she feels that her education raises her status in the intellectual world, and therefore life in general, above anyone not as educated as she is. "You poor baby…it’s just as well you don’t understand"(404). The young woman fails to see that there is much more to life than what you can learn in a book. Due to a heart condition, however, Hulga is forced to remain home on the farm, instead of being in an academic setting where her education would be recognized and encouraged. This attitude that she is above most other people isolates Hulga from everyone around her. Even her mother c...
Motivation was something that Lena never lacked. “I’m going to get my mother out of that old sod house where she’s lived so many years. The men will never do it.” Lena took her mother’s fate into her own hands when it was not socially acceptable for her to do so.
Child had some arguments against the education system for girls. As the class learned, girls would go to school and dip their toes into many of the sciences rather than focus their education on the classics to prepare for college entrance exams like their male counterparts. Child also argued that once young women graduated, they got caught up in going to balls and parties to live out their youth while they still could. The author thought that young people should be taught about frugality and industry in case they became impoverished at some point in their lives, like the struggles that she faced with David’s debts. Within the text, Child visited with the mother of an impoverished family. The mother hired a seamstress to sew and patch their clothing because the sixteen year old daughter did not have enough sewing skill. Child was taken aback by the statement because she thought that the young woman would have been able to sew to bring in money for her family. But, the mother replied that school, music, and dance took up too much of the daughter’s time during the school year and during winter break she would be spending time with her friends. “Now is her time to enjoy herself, you know. Let her take all the comfort she can, while she is single!,” stated the mother. Since young women did not learn domestic tasks in school, they did not enjoy them later in life. The arts
The movie, Dead Poets Society truly captures the essence of the conformities that children are facing. The difference is letting the hourglass run out of time, or making the best of time, facing tough challenges along the way. Todd Anderson makes the best out of his time thanks to the teaching of Mr. Keating, his beloved English teacher. From a misunderstood adolescent to a courageous man, Todd shows his true colors and releases the inferior thoughts stirring up in his developing, young body. In the end, romanticism crushes idealism with power and envy, showing the eye-opening ways that a teacher can contribute to such a tightly wound academy such as Welton.
The change in a social class is something that is shown in every day life and the media. It is the American Dream to move upward in society. The movie Sweet Home Alabama is a prime example of social mobility in the main character. The main character Melanie Carmichael left her small town Alabama home and achieved an impressive upward social mobility. She began her life as a daughter of a respectful working class family to become a world famous fashion designer in New York City. At the beginning of the movie, Andrew, the mayor’s son, proposes to Melanie. She says yes, but before she can marry him, she has to clear up a not so final divorce with Jake, her high school sweetheart she left behind. Melanie is now caught between two classes and two cultures, the working class that she grew up in and the upper class she has now placed herself in. As the film continues, her dilemma will require her to acknowledge and reconnect with her mother who lives in a trailer park while still trying to impress h...
Education is extremely important and can be achieved in the most unexpected places. In "Homemade Education", Malcolm tells about his time in prison, where he taught himself how to read and write. Behind the bars, through the use of a dictionary and books he became literate. In this article he explains how one can change his or her lifestyle by the taking the advantage of the opportunities that are available. This relates to me because couple of years ago, I didn't know how to speak English, but I took an advantage of the opportunities I had to learn a whole different language.
from the teachers point of view; she tries to judge the Cunninghams and the Ewells from
Her friends always asked her for help doing some things, good and bad, but she did her best to stay away from that kind of things. Like on page 106 in the novel when her friend Heather says “When you get through a life sucks phase, I’m sure lots of people will want to be your friend. But you just can’t cut classes or not show up to school. What’s next-- hanging out with the dopers?” and Melinda replies “Is this the part where you try to be nice to me?” and Heather replies “You just have a reputation.” This shows how negative peer pressure affects people, like how Heather thinks that she will end up hanging out with druggies, because she has already been pressured into skipping school and class. Andy Evans, the guy who raped her, always put himself around her, almost as peer pressure to not tell anyone, because he knew he could overpower her and that he was intimidating to her. Although Melinda had gone through a lot in her first year of high school, peer pressure had affected her, and she tried to seem invisible to everyone, until she finally figured out where she belonged and who she was, then exposing Andy Evans which allowed everyone
...eral topic of school. The sister strives to graduate and go to school even though she is poor while her brother blames the school for him dropping out and not graduating. “I got out my social studies. Hot legs has this idea of a test every Wednesday” (118). This demonstrates that she is driven to study for class and get good grades while her brother tries to convince her that school is worth nothing and that there is no point in attending. “‘Why don’t you get out before they chuck you out. That’s all crap,’ he said, knocking the books across the floor. ‘You’ll only fail your exam and they don’t want failures, spoils their bloody numbers. They’ll ask you to leave, see if they don’t’” (118). The brother tries to convince his sister that school is not a necessity and that living the way he does, being a drop out living in a poverty stricken family is the best thing.
Jackson, B and Marsden, D (1966) Education and the working classes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul plc.
Though Nomi Nickel from A Complicated Kindness and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye both possess negative attitudes towards school, only Nomi evaluates her attitudes and grows as a result. Nomi’s ...
One of the major themes in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is that it is dangerous for people to rely on escaping their social classes as a means of improving their lives. In the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to the harsh and unfavorable lifestyle of Maggie’s family. In an effort to escape her cruel reality, she obtains a job working in a sweatshop (956???). However, when exploring the leisure activities of the working-class with Pete, she discovers that this might not be the right choice for her. Maggie “… imagined herself, in an exasperating future, as a scrawny woman with an eternal grievance” (963). She realizes that her small attempt to rise out of her situation is not going to get her to where she wants to be in life quickly. As she is captivated by all that Pete and the working-class lifestyle could give her, she thinks back to the sweatshop and all of the other women that work there. This image is enough to make Maggie decide that she needs to find another way of escaping the slums, which causes her to soon quit her job an...