Singh Baldwin Education Hooks Kanwaljit example essay topic

Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines freedom as personal liberty, independence and power of self-determination. Although we may not associate these qualities with education traditionally, upon closer inspection it is not at all difficult to directly link the three. As people grow older and wiser with age they do so also with education. To learn and to be educated is to challenge oneself and to become more engaged in the world around you, and in your place in it. Education at its best inspires and encourages, empowers and unites. It continues to be arguably the most important institution in our society and our most valuable tool.

Through education people are able to gain a better understanding of their lives as well as of others', and how to improve them. Education gives us the power and control to fulfill our dreams and create our destiny. As is evident through both bell hooks' and Shauna Singh-Baldwin's writings, people's experiences with education and learning obviously differ accordingly, factoring in specifics like gender and race. These factors clearly define our personal boundaries and barriers, both restricting and capacitating our intellectual progress. With the help of hooks and Singh-Baldwin this paper attempts to examine the experience of how education as freedom is achieved under the influences of race and gender.

Gender has always been and continues to be a subject, which dramatically effects both sexes in their daily lives. Both men and women have their obligatory gender stereotypes. Women are seen as passive, gentle, emotional creatures while men are the more intellectual, strong, aggressors. Because of the stigma of these stereotypes both genders have had to endure their share of social turmoil.

Women however, having historically been identified as the weaker, more vulnerable, less independent gender have also had to struggle with inequality and the barriers, which it creates. Hooks gives us an example of this when she writes: In the apartheid South, black girls from working-class backgrounds had three career choices. We could marry. We could work as maids. We could become school teachers. And since, according to the sexist thinking of the time, men didn't really desire "smart" women it was assumed that signs of intelligence sealed one's fate.

From grade school on, I was destined to become a teacher. (hooks, 22) Women from the South had to adhere to certain social expectations, which involved succumbing to gender stereotypes. In her essay hooks describes how she too was tempted to give in to social pressures and follow her role as an intellectual black woman, which was to become a school teacher. Although hooks became a teacher she never gave up her dreams of becoming a writer and as she learned more through her own education she became more confident that writing was what she should be doing. "Writing would be the serious work", and hooks both teaches and writes in her career (hooks, 22). The role of gender in hooks' life served as a reminder of the limited choices of women in the South, but at the same time seemed to provide her with a drive to defy the norm and reach for her dreams thereby achieving independence from the stigma of sexism. Also hooks' dedication to excelling in her education and becoming an 'undesirable' woman granted her the privilege of a higher education which enabled her to gain knowledge of feminist literature and theory which would become a main focus in her adult career.

Shauna Singh- Baldwin's character has a different experience. Kanwaljit has emigrated from India, where she lived suppressed under a patriarchal society. Her life there is understood to be sub-servant to the men in her life. She is expected to stay at home raising her son while her husband leaves her behind to start their new life in America. It is especially interesting that 'Tony' goes off to start this new life without his wife, which obviously outlines the nature of their relationship and his control over her.

Even given the sensitive nature of the immigration situation, Tony still does not even contact her regarding her joining him until he has already been in the country for six months. Control is also clearly exhibited over Kanwaljit by Tony's younger brother who threatens to give away their secret if she doesn't sleep with him, which of course, she does. Also we can see what little value is placed on women in Punjab society as Singh-Baldwin illustrates for us how Kanwaljit is left under the control of her husband's family and how even her male child is deemed more important than she. Singh-Baldwin writes: "If I had disciplined him, Tony's parents would have been angry - he is their only grandson". (Singh-Baldwin, 74) Kanwaljit is expected to be obedient and dependent on those around her. Although Kanwaljit's move to America represents independence from the patriarchal, oppressive society of Punjab her husband still tries to enforce his power over her.

Kanwaljit constantly has to ask for her husband's approval and permission even concerning things that don't effect him. It is through her English lessons that she is able to finally find an outlet in which to exercise her new-found freedom. The lessons represent her new life and possibilities and with them she takes the necessary steps towards becoming independent from her husband, and consequently from her role as the sub-servant wife. Race is an issue that constantly outlines people's differences. Though race sometimes acts as a barrier, which divides and separates us race can also unite people and bring them together. The latter is the case of bell hooks.

Her excerpt from Teaching to Transgress describes how successful her all-black school was in nurturing and challenging her. Her segregated schooling provided her with an education rooted in anti-racist struggle, which promoted intellectual growth and critical thinking. It was during her time in segregated schools that hooks was able to develop her love and enthusiasm for learning, and where she discovered that learning could be an empowering, liberating experience. She writes: I loved learning. School was the place of ecstasy - pleasure and danger.

To be changed by ideas was pure pleasure. But to learn ideas that ran counter to values and beliefs learned at home was to place oneself at risk, to enter the danger zone. Home was the place where I was forced to conform to someone else's image of who and what I should be. School was the place where I could forget that self and, through ideas, reinvent myself. (hooks, 22) When hooks entered integrated schools she encountered a completely different experience of learning. Black students were busse d to all-white schools and forced to deal with trying to learn under the stresses of racist peers and teachers.

The meaning behind learning suddenly changed as white teachers exhibited no interest in treating black students as individuals or even as equals and black students spent their education time trying to disprove negative racial stereotypes. These negative experiences with discrimination more clearly identified reality for hooks as well as helped to map out her place in the world. Through her struggles at school hooks realized how problematic her learning experience was and began to appreciate her previous schooling, understanding how much more successful teaching can be when students are treated as individuals and are challenged in a secure, equal environment. This became the basis for hooks' theories regarding the classroom and teaching. Singh-Baldwin's characters also had to deal with similar change in education. Upon Immigrating to America, Kanwaljit goes through a period of adjustment in which she begins to get used to the changes that she is experiencing in her new home.

Kanwaljit and her family are forced to conform to 'the American way' as her family molds into the melting pot culture. This process seems to almost entirely wipe out the last traces of Indian culture Kanwaljit has left. The family changes their names to American sounding aliases like "Kelly", "Tony", and "Tommy". Kanwaljit also wears pants to divert attention from her Indian heritage and programs her answering machine with an American voice. All of this is done in an attempt to become more American. In addition to this there is always the fear of becoming like an "untouchable" who are the lowest of people in India, these are individuals who are poor and of low class.

Kanwaljit and her family are obviously striving to work hard and make something of themselves in America. Kanwaljit is also forced to live in hiding so that she does not arouse suspicion as she waits for her green card. Since Indian couples do not usually live together before marriage their union must be hidden in America. Kanwaljit thinks to herself: "I live like a worm avoiding the sunlight" (Singh-Baldwin, 74) Although for the time being Kanwaljit is forced to live in seclusion, her situation does not seem bleak.

She is clearly looking forward to experiencing a life of freedom and security in America. Coming from the turmoil of dangerous civil-riots, and police brutality in India, America is a safe-haven of independence and opportunity. The idea of this kind of life style is especially seen through Kanwaljit's interaction with learning, both with her English teacher and through her own personal experiences. The English-lessons will bring Kanwaljit independence from her husband as she is able to more easily and comfortably communicate in English. These skills will empower her with the possibility to control her own life instead of just living the life her husband chooses for her. Education is freedom.

The statement seems very bold, but after closer examination it becomes almost undeniable. Education is something that people are always very proud of, and so they should be. It remains one of the most defining characteristics of our culture. Our ability to conceptualize, learn and educate is after all, what separates humans from mere animals.

It should come as no surprise then, that a person's education effects them so profoundly. Throughout this essay concentration has been placed on how education frees the human mind but examination should also be given to how education can work as a negative influence. What if education wasn't the practice of freedom? What if it stifled and suppressed; prohibiting its students from becoming engaged in the learning process and removing the excitement from a challenging and inquiring mind?

Picture a school where the students and teachers do not communicate. Where there is no engaging voice which not so much controls the class but leads the class to collectively as well as individually create their own ideas and questions. The products of these classes would be students who had little imagination, critical thinking skills and creativity. Instead of teachers guiding their students and helping them to forge their own creative learning experience alongside their peers, instructors would only serve to dominate the class and promote a dull, apathetic classroom dynamic based on obedience and conformity. This is the kind of learning environment hooks struggled with as a student as well as an educator. She understands how difficult learning can be when the classroom isn't a positive experience, and when neither the teacher nor students take an active participation in the class.

This participation is described by hooks as being "excitement (which) is generated through collective effort". This ultimately should be the goal of every classroom as it more easily enables students and teachers to work together tackling information and ideas with ease and intensity. The nurturing schooling hooks received at all-black schools showed her the power of "learning as revolution" and that "education was enabling, that it enhanced our capacity to be free" (hooks, 25). She realized how fortunate she had been to be part of such learning experience and decided that she wanted to recreate that for other students and teachers. Because of the confidence and excitement hooks gained form her education hooks retained a very positive view of what education should be for everyone, as she continued to educate herself and others throughout her career. She chooses to challenge herself constantly as well as the way others think of education. hooks writes that learning is: "an act of resistance countering the overwhelming boredom, uninterested, and apathy that so often characterize the way professors and students feel about teaching and learning, about the classroom experience" (hooks, 26).

The concept of education as the practice of freedom can also be applied on a more specific, individual level. Shauna Singh-Baldwin's short story emphasizes the importance of education as a way of introducing new possibility and opportunity into the main character's life. Kanwaljit lacks communication skills which prohibits her from moving forward in her new life in America. She is unable to achieve the independence she so desperately wants because she cannot properly function in American society without proper command of the language and of basic communication skills.

Although Kanwaljit has some education from India she is forced to take an active interest in learning so that she can create a better life for herself. The idea of learning seems very exciting for Kanwaljit as she thinks of all the things she will be able to do with her English lessons, such as tell off her husband's ex-wife and learn to drive. These ideas give her a sense of power and freedom as she realizes that America really can be the panacea to free her from the danger and oppression of life in Punjab. As she learns more and more English she begins to act more independent, speaking up to her husband and beginning to take more control over her own decisions and consequently her life.

Kanwaljit thinks to herself "I will tell Tony I will take English lessons, and that she will be my teacher" (Singh-Baldwin, 75). Once Kanwaljit has tasted the freedom of her new life she is unable to satisfy her thirst. At the idea of becoming more educated and more powerful she feels liberated and begins to think critically of her own life and what she want's for herself. It is for these reasons that Kanwaljit English lessons represent freedom for her. The last paragraph of the story hold the most impact for the reader as Tony explains to the English teacher that Kanwaljit is not to learn more than he has learned of the language, and not become to advanced". Tomorrow, I will ask her where I can learn how to drive" is Kanwaljit's silent reply (Singh-Baldwin 75).

It is obvious to see how deeply we are effected by education in our lives. How we are educated and what we choose to do with our learning experiences however, are dependent on the individual. Gender and race, along with the type of education we experience profoundly effects the decisions we make and how we use our education to benefit our lives and intellectual abilities. Without the knowledge that education is important it is difficult to imagine success in our society.

Similarly without the understanding that society develops the basis for our education it is difficult to imagine a successful learning environment. Both students and teachers need to look closely at the way the learning process is conducted so that we may ensure that the classroom remains a neutral place where not only the memorization of facts but also ideas around learning to learn become significant. Education is a very powerful tool, which we should utilize to better ourselves both individually and as a society. Teachers must not be allowed simply to lecture blindly to their students, to avoid challenging and communicating with them. Similarly students should be engaged with their peers as well as with their own thoughts, creating an enthusiastic and collective classroom setting. These students will hopefully grow to learn the importance of thinking objectively of the world around them and realizing the possibilities which they have at their feet.

After all that's what education is about; freedom.

Bibliography

Baldwin, S.S. English Lessons and Other Stories. Bloomsbury Publishing. 1999 Hooks, B.
Introduction: Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge. 1994 McIntosh, E.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Oxford University Press, 1964.