Essay, Research Paper: Cronon On Education

Cronon on Education
Having read Victor's story not realizing until the very end that "Victor" in the story was the author made it much more confusing! I realize that the issue here is about racial and social discrimination as well as about education and following your own ideals instead of the rest of society's. He displays this through the various characters and stories throughout the essay as well as his own personal accounts. The reason and logic behind his paper is shown through the different examples, such as in the classroom with the different students of different gender, race, social standing, etc. I find his ideas much harder to follow as they are much less clear-cut than Cronon's. He likes the idea of changing education and making it much more true for the student instead of "protecting" them from some evil within society. The idea of having children read several versions of Cinderella to become more learned of the different cultures and the actual societal concerns instead of just being a children's story really makes sense. He presents this in a way that you cannot help but agree, it sheds light on many things for me as I am sure it did for others.
Cronon writes of liberal education in modern society and what it means him. He tries to condense liberal education down for the reader, as he thinks that society has let it become too broad of a term. Making "lists" for a person's education can make them forget the real purpose that it is to "nurture human freedom and growth." (p.113) He then makes a list of his own ideals of what liberal education should provide the student the student with. (of what qualities they should pocess after being liberally educated) He deems liberal education in society today as having had become too broad and that the real purpose has been forgotten. His form of persuasion is to put it on the table and speak his mind freely giving his own opinion as the example, unlike Victor who used example after example to explain his thoughts and reasoning. While he describes these ten qualities to pertain to the "individual" in the end he makes clear that we are to become connected with the community in all aspects of this liberal eduacation. "Only connect."


Word Count: 386