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This week, I chose to focus my writing on something our class hasn't really discussed. Throughout the semester, we've been talking about types of access that are imposed on us. Our income level, the class we're born in to, the community and culture we're a part of....these are generally aspects of access that have been imposed on us, or things we don't have full control over.

My thesis revolves around psychological attitudes and how they precede educational access barriers such as class or income. Essentially, I argued that the first step towards gaining access to education is having the desire and curiosity to learn.Without being psychologically openminded towards learning, the level of access one has is irrelevant.

I'm still wondering to myself about the development of my argument, and for this reason, this week's paper was particularly difficult for me to write and reflect on.  

Here is an excerpt:

I really enjoyed the first reading, “Culture as Disability,” especially the part of the Vineyard deaf. It shocks me (well I would like to think it shocks me but really, what actually is shocking anymore? I feel like by now we’ve seen it all in graphic detail hundreds of times) that hearing people could go into a community that is obviously thriving and decree that it needs help because it is “disabled.” But how many times have we seen this happen? Let’s go “civilize” the Native Americans and ban their native language, steal their land, and wipe out populations while we’re at it! Let’s go “help” out countries across the world and give them the gift of a Democratic government even though historically and religiously the likelihood of success is terribly low- oh and we’ll just let militant groups take control of cities and kill off civilians while we’re at it!

For a culture that so often stresses the uniqueness of individuals and how everyone is special, it seems that we do an awful lot of categorizing and labeling. As McDermott and Varenne wrote, “No ability, no disability. No disability, no ability.” In the movie “The Incredibles,” the mother says to her son, “Everyone is special, Dash.” His response is, “That’s just a way of saying that no one is.” 

I never realized how much I could relate to Richard Rodriguez's experiences in school. After my one-on-one I decided to change the direction of my original paper. My most recent paper argued that if one doesn't have access to the person one is, it hinders the progress one has both as a student and a person outside of school. I have trouble identifying as a Cambodian because I can't speak the Khmer language, thereore I find it hard to socialize with other Cambodian people. When I can't socialize with a certain group of people that I should be able to fit in with, it's obvious that I'm not one of them. My parents and teachers had good intentions when they taught me the English language but I'm discovering now that I'm a product of assimilation. I read over Rodriguez's article to remember what it was about and it was slightly painful and relieving for me to read. It was painful in the sense that I know that I felt exactly the way Rodriguez felt for being annoyed at my parents' grammatical errors and them not being able to help me with my homework. But it was also relieving to know that it is indeed possible to lose a language and also a part of my identity. I thought it was a ridiculous claim and I beat myself up about it, but now that I have thought and written about it, I really do believe it.

"Women in Luttrell’s study did not have access to schooling in the past. But I believe what they learned in the daily life gave them the access to education. Their intelligence is attached with common sense. “I think being intelligent means coping with things in life. Even people with high IQs or with college degrees don’t know how to do the simplest, everyday things or cope with everyday problems.” (Luttrell 25). Knowing how to deal with life involves self-development. For example, a woman who gains experience as a mother, overtime may be better at giving births and taking care of children. They develop their skills by reflecting what they did, correcting their mistakes and improving their situations in the future. On the contrary, in case of Jane Tompkins, despite her advanced schooling, her education is cut off from the real life situations. All she learned is just theoretical. She was not well-equipped for life. “It would be more helpful to students if, as a starting point, universities conceived education less as training for a career than an introduction to life.” (Tompkins 223). Tompkins, according to the basic definition, did not really access to education due to her advanced schooling".

I found this paper particularly difficult to write. The reason for my difficulties was my trouble determining what education is. Everyone has access to some sort of education whether it be education on street politics or Shakespeare. When writing my paper I decided to focus only on academic education because this is the education that is less available for the majority of people. My claim stated that there are two main ways to receive this kind of education. The first is by having the financial stability to afford academic education or second, by having some sort of mentor to guide you there. I used Rodriguez and Luttrell’s pieces to support my claim. Though, there are other factors to whether or not you have access to academic education, such as where you live, the base of it all is money and whether there is someone you trust who values academic education.

When I was brainstorming ideas to right about for my essay, initially, I had been intending to write about how class affects a person’s access to education. The amount of money and cultural capital a person possesses determines how easily resources are available to him/her and the quality of the resources available; however, when reflecting and comparing between Tompkins’s, Yezierska’s and Rodriguez’s educations and their consequences, I found that that amount of resources a person has access to does not determine the level of satisfaction a student will walk away with once higher education is attained. What unfolded was that individuals have a choice in what they get out of their education by means of the different ways in which they choose to utilize their resources at hand to gain what they want and develop into who they are. Thus, education was really the vehicle in which people find themselves - discover their passions and potentials.

“However,  I strongly believe that the access that counts is access to formal education – education that makes waves. This occurs in the classroom and attaches a respectable title to your name and function, in addition to a higher pay check. It can make the difference between your wearing a blue or white collar. It takes you places, making you relevant beyond your immediate community. With it you don’t plead, you negotiate. It empowers you to play the game of life more successfully. Yes, to survive in today’s society an individual needs the platform of formal education to discover, harness and achieve his or her full potential. There is only so much that common sense or experience gained from daily life can do for you. To be a beauty queen, you must answer the questions you are asked intelligently, without stumbling over words or groping for them. If you cannot read, analyze data, and express yourself clearly and persuasively, you will be used, abused and recycled.  Common sense is never enough.”

When I initially began thinking about my Friday night paper, and what, exactly, education allows one to access, I was thinking that I might make a distinction between formal (classroom based) education, and informal (life based) education, much like the women in the Lutrell piece did.  However, after thinking about it carefully, I decided that I didn't want to make that distinction at all.  Instead, I started to think about Dewey's theory of education as requiring both experience and reflection, and how that can come from a variety of sources.  This lead me to question the standard line of formal education: That it is the one definite path to future success.  

Instead, I wondered if all forms of education actually allow us to access the same exact thing: An awareness that we know virtually nothing, and a desire to continuously test new ideas, which would lead to further assurance that we know nothing, and so on.  This is basically where I centered my argument.  I believe that all education can really offer us is a desire for more education, and that this desire is inherently valuable, far beyond the value of a good job or future connections.  

When I started trying my essay my claim was going to be how wealth is the only thing that gives people an access of educated. Eventually throughout my writing I realized this was not my claim, my claim was that no matter the wealth, how people react to education is how they learn. Such as resources are important and you get resources through money but without enthusiatic teachers an education cannot be learned. It shocked my how much I related to my own claim because my teachers weren't very good but my school had all the resources they needed.

I write this entry from the marine science laboratory at Williams-Mystic, a maritime studies program based in Mystic, CT. I spent last semester with the program, which provides an interdisciplinary academic experience for students interested in marine and maritime studies; I also remained here over the summer, where I worked with a professor from the program on an academic paper detailing Virginia Woolf and her first novel The Voyage Out. I'm back once again for Alumni Weekend, having conquered a very late SEPTA train and 4.5 hours on Amtrak with a screaming infant seated in front of me. During the block of time I spent riding up the coast, I thought a lot about what physical efforts I had to make for the weekend. Starting at my room on Merion 3rd, I walked down two flights of stairs and up to the R5. From there, I wove through 30th Street Station, stood in line for my Amtrak train for about 30 minutes, went down two escalators, and got onto my train. Once in Mystic, I had to walk approximately one mile from the train station to the Williams-Mystic campus, pitch my tent (being a poor college student, I'm not staying in a hotel), and finally met up with a friend to go sailing on the estuary.