Frederick Douglass
How come our children can't, with all the available libraries, television programs (educational ones), museums, and the Internet? I guess what I am wondering is if we are too dependent on the government to educate our kids, or is it just easier to blame the government? Anyone have any thoughts?
First of all, it is an inaccuracy to say that children 'can't' get an education today. Many children can and do, and not simply the wealthiest members of our society. The impressive success of many poor and wealthy students alike in the 'magnet' or elite public schools systems of the land like Bronx Science within the New York City Public School system, are testimony to the fact that neither poverty nor riches are guarantees of educational success. Also, Harvard University has said many times that it could fill its incoming class many times over with successful and qualified applicants. In short, some children are clearly actively using the opportunities that are available to them, or creating opportunities where they do not exist.
Good schools, involved parents, and a variety of enrichment opportunities are aids to education. Almost every person can remember a good teacher, a seminal visit to a museum or city, or just an educational experience that changed their life. The lesson of Frederick Douglass is not that there should be fewer opportunities to be educated, as Douglass himself fought for expanded literacy, but that students should not assume, simply because they do not have the best available educational opportunities while they are growing up, that a good education is impossible. It may simply take more effort on their parts.
Some, but clearly not all children, may take their education for granted, like people in industrialized countries take the easy availability of food for granted. But starvation of opportunity to stimulate desire and appreciation for what has been taken away is not a solution.
"To degrade and stamp out the liberties of a race" signified the "studied purpose" of linking social and civil equality. Douglass concluded that if the Civil Rights Law attempted to promote social equality, so did "the laws and customs of every civilized country in the world," including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, and the Apostles' Creed. He warned
Although fictional, Precious Jones, speaks to the reader through her story with powerful words. She is living in a different kind of slavery, although slavery itself had been abolished ore than a century ago. She is a slave to the lack of humanity of her own parents and the indifference of those who are supposed to teach and offer her guidance in school. As a child, she has no choice,
Stressing the shackles that slavery could latch to a man's mind, Douglass was given insight into the inherent transgression behind the bondage. And his ability to adopt such a perspective, while easy to underestimate from the distance of over a century, is quite remarkable given the overwhelming social constructions designed to deter that sort of thinking amongst his demographic. One of the more effective messages that he conveyed both
Douglass in the form of intellectual revolt. All of these incidents of violence which took place when Frederick Douglass was struggling to become a man free of the bondage of slavery and the inherent dangers that come with it, clearly indicate that the life of a slave during the early to mid-1800's was filled with brutality, murder and death, almost always at the hands of white slave owners and their
Paul Kendrick notes, "When it counted, Lincoln had effectively collaborated with Douglass's decades-long pursuit of the total and irrevocable destruction of slavery. That an outspoken black abolitionist and a cautious prairie lawyer would ever meet, much less profoundly influence one another and form a partnership, is astounding" (Kendrick). This relationship seems so far-fetched and yet, it happened. Douglass never set out to meet the president but his determination led
As for Frederick Douglass, he was nothing short of brilliant. His speeches were powerful and his writing was extraordinarily skillful, especially given the fact that he was born a slave and taught himself much of what he knew. His narrative is polished and at times understated, which actually adds power to what he says. Because when a reader goes through the Narrative from the Life of Frederick Douglass that reader
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now