Reimagining Popular Notions of American Intellectualism by Kelly Susan; Bradbury

Author:Kelly Susan; Bradbury [Bradbury, Kelly Susan;]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

All of the students I interviewed value education because they assume it leads to a better life. What students mean by “a better life” varies, of course. For some, a better life means a better job, more money, a nice home, or the opportunity for more education for themselves or their children. For others, a better life means a nice life for their children, having the respect of others, or believing in themselves. For Kim, a career as a surgical tech and owning a house are among the things she wants but believes she can’t get without a GED. Her statement about why she values education is indicative of many of the students’ responses: “You need [education] to do anything that you wanna do . . . it’s like I have all these goals I wanna do but I have to get my GED first before I do that.” In Joseph’s words, “Education is life pretty much . . . without it you pretty much can’t live.” For Wendell, the purpose of education is “so you can educate yourself so you can have a better future, so you can have a better life, especially black people because we have had such a hard time.” Cate, the program supervisor, said that from what she has seen, students make this connection because of their “real-world” experiences in which their lack of education has limited access to things they have wanted.

In addition to associating education with access, all interviewees indicated their interests in and motivations for furthering their education are tied to self-respect and overcoming feelings of inadequacy. For instance, when I asked Dina, a forty-five-year-old woman working part-time at McDonald’s, why she’s working on her GED now, she said, “I hope to gain self-esteem, definitely, number one.” Likewise, Wendell, the oldest person in the program at the time at age sixty, said, “I’m motivated to do it now, not because it will do me any good at this age. I just wanna say to myself, and I got brothers and sisters I can say to, I did get this.” Anna, a fifty-four-year-old mother of ten, said, “The hat and gown is basically what I’m here for. I wanna walk around with the little tassels at the store, butt naked with the hat on . . . ya know, just be proud of it.” In her interview, the program supervisor said she has observed in students the connection between their self-esteem and getting the GED. For many, she said, it’s about proving to themselves they can earn the diploma, rather than have it handed to them.

While students like Anna, Wendell, and Dina are motivated to get their GED primarily by a desire to prove something to themselves, for other students self-esteem is one of a number of benefits (and perhaps not the main benefit). For Teresa, a single mother with a full-time clerical job at a doctor’s office, among the forces motivating her is her desire to feel more adequate in situations like talking to her kids’ teachers and in interviewing for jobs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.