Education is an essential part of life. Looking at education through race is beneficial because education is not the same for all races. In Jon Spayde’s “Learning in the Key of Life” he talks about what it means to be educated. He asks the question, “What does it mean—and more important, what should it mean—to be educated?” in the beginning of his essay. This connects to Richard Wright’s “The Library Card” because he found a way to get through obstacles to become educated. To be educated considering the racial differences in mind requires acknowledging how racial inequality prevents access to power and generalizes cultural experiences. To be educated through a racial perspective gives a better understanding of how education affects power.
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Spayde talks about the concept of loving and grasping education effectively his article. He says, “ ‘people cannot learn what they do not love’---the idea of learning as an encounter infused with eros. (Spayde 118)’” Eros is the the Roman equivalent for Cupid. So Cupid’s arrows are filled with a love for learning. And if someone was to metaphorically get hit with one of Cupid’s arrows, then their love of learning will be intense. Forcing someone to learn something that they dislike will be difficult, because they can’t grasp the concept effectively. Since their heart is not in it, the outcome won’t be as positive as it would be if someone was learning what they really desired. In Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story”, she realizes something about the books she read when she was younger. She says “Because all I had to read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books, by their nature, had to have foreigners in them, and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify. (Adichie 38)” Because she read a lot of books with white characters, that are different from her, her view of books were distorted. How could she connect to characters in the books that don’t have the same problems as hers? Adichie could have liked the books she read because of the actual story plot. But she probably couldn’t invest her time into the characters because they were so distinctive from herself she couldn’t get past that barrier. Not saying that having a connection with a character of a different race rarely happens, which is untrue. Having at least one person in a book, makes it much easier to dig deeper into who the characters are. Again, representation in education matters because to see a person of the same background in literature is imperative. Looking at anything by someone just like you is
Spayde talks about the concept of loving and grasping education effectively his article. He says, “ ‘people cannot learn what they do not love’---the idea of learning as an encounter infused with eros. (Spayde 118)’” Eros is the the Roman equivalent for Cupid. So Cupid’s arrows are filled with a love for learning. And if someone was to metaphorically get hit with one of Cupid’s arrows, then their love of learning will be intense. Forcing someone to learn something that they dislike will be difficult, because they can’t grasp the concept effectively. Since their heart is not in it, the outcome won’t be as positive as it would be if someone was learning what they really desired. In Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story”, she realizes something about the books she read when she was younger. She says “Because all I had to read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books, by their nature, had to have foreigners in them, and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify. (Adichie 38)” Because she read a lot of books with white characters, that are different from her, her view of books were distorted. How could she connect to characters in the books that don’t have the same problems as hers? Adichie could have liked the books she read because of the actual story plot. But she probably couldn’t invest her time into the characters because they were so distinctive from herself she couldn’t get past that barrier. Not saying that having a connection with a character of a different race rarely happens, which is untrue. Having at least one person in a book, makes it much easier to dig deeper into who the characters are. Again, representation in education matters because to see a person of the same background in literature is imperative. Looking at anything by someone just like you is