“A Talk to Teachers” by James Baldwin, Essay Example

Structure is often the base foundation of a unified organization. In the aim of creating a unified society, the introduction of education has been pursued to create a specific form of structure.  The presentation of a well defined curriculum has been first introduced to make definite impact on the thinking of the young learners. The desire of education to be a tool of social distinction that would likely define the individuals who are able acquire proper education as defined by the society itself.

As mentioned by James Baldwin in his writing, education has not been defined by structure originally. It was specifically the parents who were commissioned to provide basic education to their children. This included even skills and specific trade practices that are expected to provide them with good source of competence in facing life and its challenges when it comes to earning for their own living as they grow into maturity. It is only through parental guidance that children were expected to get basic moral understanding that would further define them as individuals in the society that they are living in. Basically, the capacity of a person to become a good individual lies directly on the capacity of his parents and his family to become responsive in relation to the responsibility towards honing both the characteristics and the intellectual capacities of the person from the point of childhood.

The definition of education was then considered under simple assumptions of being guided by the parents and the family as a whole. However, in the instance of the entrant of a structured administration of governance, education and its function took a great leap of adjustment. One specific adjustment is that it became structured. The separation of formal from informal education has been established and discrimination among those who are not able to get for themselves ‘basic formal’ education has been born. Relatively, the family-based education is then referred to as informal education while the education presented in schools is considered formal. This transition of educational function and recognition almost overthrows the role of the family to hone the being of a person. As a result, many parents, although they are able, would rather send their children to school to be ‘educated’ since the governing administrators have defined education to be specifically taught in schools.

Education at this point was not a provision but a sense of element that defines the recognizable status of an individual. Being an element of status symbol, people began running after education as a necessity for survival. Observably, the society today imposes the presentation of structured education as a source of honor, respect from others and a relative condition of being able to face the challenge of living in a society of different opportunities. Noting how the condition of a person’s thinking is established through the application of education, it could be realized how this particular form of learning has become more of a requirement than a choice.

For many years, education has been considered as the source of possible inspiration for people to think better and pursue greater dreams that would later on improve the society as a whole. Notably though, as formal education has been introduced to the human society, several problems have risen and likely the most common among them is that of the falling-off of family ties. Parents, being motivated by their responsibility to ‘send their children to school’ and not to educate them, are now running after several job opportunities to find a way to earn the right amount of money to acquire structured education from both public and private educational institutions. Remarkably, the attention of the parents are stipulated in making sure that their children would get the education they need to be able to get good jobs and later on be able to support their own children to go to school and acquire education. The cycle continues to impact families and will specifically influence families in the future as well. This is especially true when it comes to the making of the responsibility of the parents to send their children to school have been considered as a responsibility towards the law. Putting too much importance on this particular structured form of learning has placed higher pressure on the shoulders of the parents as they need to get as much job opportunities to earn as needed for that all-too-important formal education.

Centralized and defined by the developing trend of learning, education has become a source of understanding that humans use to define their society and the connection they have with it. When a person becomes educated in an institutionalized form, he begins to see matters in the society that were once considered unimportant to be primarily essential for survival. For instance, a young child who only understands life in a basic manner does not know the economic worth of a nation. Nevertheless, as the child ages and attends several schools and gain specific educational backgrounds about the world economy and its value when it comes to defining a nation’s position in the international trading system, that person becomes more aware that he must be able to contribute to the economic status of his country through working hard for the money.

Simple living and gaining enough to support what is necessary has become a thing of the past. As of now, education has provided humans with the idea that their wants and desires need to be satisfied. To do so, some even sacrifice their basic needs for survival such as food and shelter in exchange for a ‘better future’. Many individuals have put aside morals for the sake of ‘becoming acceptable in the society’ that they are hoping to live with. Many people have become eager to be recognized rather than to actually live in a manner that would best be able to put them in the position of being capable to provide others with the help they need. The basic foundation of human morality has slowly become powerless in assuming personal definition f character and identity.

Today, the authorities and administrators in different governments around the globe continue to create legislations that they think would further improve social structure and unification. This approach however has made it possible for such legislations to overthrow the basic rules of living when it comes to the establishment of moral grounds and the realization of what is needed from what is desired. In many societies, many people have placed education and work ahead of their family-responsibilities resulting to weaker family ties. Is it really worth it to embrace an education that would put one’s own family life in danger? Was it worth it to produce a system that would bring about innovative prosperity while it destroys the foundation of a successful and strong society? For many years, education and its furthering course of becoming a necessity has been questioned for its real function and how people are viewing its worth into their lives and the practicality it has when it comes to establishing their identity as a human being.