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Valerie Gonzalez

Menendez

English 1S

November 10, 2016

“The Purpose Of Education”

Out of all the readings that we have done so far, the three readings that I focused on were

“Killer Illiteracy” by Ishmael Reed, “Mindsets and Equitable Education” by Carol S. Dweck, and

“The Educated Student: Global Citizen or Global Consumer?” by Benjamin R. Barber. These

three readings are made up of several components that all connect and stress the overall

importance of education within a society. We can trace back the act of learning to the formation

of ancient societies, however education became the center of society on July 4, 1776 when

thirteen colonies achieved their independence from England. As a result of these growing

colonies, they came to be known as the United States, and in order for the United States to create

a strong government and society, they needed to educate themselves. Through education, they

created a democracy, established a strong federal government, and created the Bills of Rights, so

that all citizens would be protected. Due to its favorable democracy, the United States has

become a place that millions of people migrate to to adopt this place as their new home. ​One

important purpose of education in a democratic society should be to teach the basis of

developing a growth mindset to educators, who will then teach it to their students.

In the writing piece “Killer Illiteracy,” Reed highlights the significance of literacy in a

society. Through literacy, we learn what our rights are, how to protect our health and how to

defend ourselves from ​gerrymandering​ schemes and unethical experiments. ​Americans today
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tend to believe that​ illiteracy only affects the lower classes and minorities, but it has been

revealed to us by Reed that the problems with literacy development have also surfaced the center

of public schools and universities. Reed’s personal take on this issue is to provide the schools

that he visits with writing exercises that allow the students to express themselves, while also

developing their thoughts in a more skillful manner. He also urges educators to adopt a

multicultural curriculum to their modern curriculums. ​Reed himself writes​, “You’d think that the

modern curriculum would include books by Hispanics, Asian Americans, Afro-Americans- not

just the token one or two who are there for the wrong reasons- so as to demonstrate to children of

those cultures what persons of their backgrounds have accomplished(12).”​In other words, Reed

believes ​that by adopting a ​multicultural​ curriculum, educators would be encouraging students of

different cultures to become more engaged in their writing, while also enhancing the curriculum

entirely. Multicultural curriculum are the teachings that involve history, beliefs and values of

individuals belonging to different cultural backgrounds​.​ The readers can infer that Reed wants

educators to take on a growth mindset approach towards the literacy development of their

students. A growth mindset is simply a belief that a person holds that tells them their abilities can

be developed through practice and hardwork. The readers can also infer that educators that show

they have a growth mindset are viewing the neglection of traditionalist ways as a chance to

increase a student's knowledge and writing abilities through multicultural teachings. When Reed

was exposed to writers of his own background such as Richard Wright, he felt his interest in

writing commence. If educators develop a growth mindset towards improving a student’s literacy

development through multicultural teachings, I believe the rates of illiteracy will decrease.
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In addition to aiding the widespread issue of illiteracy, Reed believes parents need to take

on a share of responsibility in their children's early literacy development. Reed argues that it is

key for all parents to assume the roles of instructors in their households by leaving books and

magazines around the house and by tutoring their children. ​According to Reed​, “And if parents

can’t read or write, there are programs available to them that will help(16).” By stating this, Reed

is reminding illiterate parents that they need be involved in this process too and that being

illiterate should not be an excuse. When Reed mentions The Second Start Adult Literacy

Program, it shows how serious he is about illiterate parents getting involved and it suggest to

readers that he wants parents to take on a growth mindset approach towards helping their child’s

literacy develop. By attending available programs, illiterate parents would not only be learning

skills that would benefit themselves but they would be providing themselves with a tool to help

their children. As a result, those illiterate parents that are taking on a growth mindset approach

towards helping their children would be able to consider themselves educators too, which by

definition is someone who provides instruction or education or acts as a tutor. This will cause the

children to see that through hard work anything is possible and I would guess that in the future

the children would go on to do the same for their own child’s literacy development. I feel that it

is crucial, especially in a ​cosmopolitan​ society that educators take on the issues within education

with a growth mindset approach because they are in some control of how engaged and attentive

we will be as students.

The direct connection between an educator and student’s mindset is a lot easier to

identify in the article, “Mindsets and Equitable Education” when the author, Dweck directly

states that the beliefs that teachers and students hold will highly impact a student's success.
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Recent research has proved that a student's mindset will determine how well they do on a test

and the final grade they receive in a class, and that teaching students to have a growth mindset

will increase their grades and confidence. Also, adopting a growth mindset for those facing

negative stereotypes will help those individuals to believe in themselves and stay focused. Sadly,

some teachers already hold a fixed mindset towards some of their students intelligence, meaning

that they believe some students just aren’t smart and that they share little to no impact on a

student’s capabilities. When Dweck says, “It is essential for educators to communicate that they

hold a growth mind-set(15).” ​Basically, Dweck is saying​ that it is essential for educators that do

have a growth mindset towards their students intelligence, that they be open about their mindset

with their students. Besides an educator simply stating that they have a growth mindset towards

his or her students, they will show it daily by suggesting study skills to students, praising them

for their hard work, and constantly encouraging them to try harder. Once a student is aware that a

teacher is not expecting them to be the smartest student in class and that teacher values hard

work and effort, it will cause the student to work harder and feel more confident in their work.

As a result of this, students develop a growth mindset of their own that tells them anything is

possible through hard work and practice and they become more confident in who they are

overall. Throughout an individual's life, holding an empowering state of mind like a growth

mindset will affect every aspect or doubt in their lives positively.

In relation to teachers having a growth or fixed mindsets, I can remember a time that my

AP literature teacher’s fixed mindset towards my abilities influenced my mindset on my own

abilities. It was my junior year of highschool, and I continued to take advanced placement

english courses as I had the last two years, except this time I was one out of six latinos in whole
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AP literature department for juniors. Although the statistic was shockingly lower than it had been

the last two years, it did not bother me, in fact it only made me more proud to continue

challenging myself. I felt confident about my writing skills and I was determined to ace this

class. I was doing pretty well until the second half of the semester when we were assigned to

read several pages and answer 40 questions based on the Scarlet Letter. From those 40 questions,

I remember not understanding what half of them were asking and I stayed in right after class to

ask my teacher for help and instead, she urged me to ask a classmate. I did as she said, and still

the next day which was two days before it was due, I explained to her that I did not understand 4

of them. And before she even tried to help me, she responded, “maybe you should consider

dropping the class next semester because it’s only going to get harder.” Instead of expressing to

her how that comment made me feel, I looked away and said I would think about it. After that

conversation, I questioned myself if the current C+ I had in the class was good enough, I

wondered if maybe asking too many questions showed her I was not AP english material, and I

began to wonder why I didn’t just take regular english. On the day the assignment was due, I

didn’t even bother showing up or emailing her, and my next semester and year in english felt like

an easy A+. This is a perfect example of how a teacher’s mindset can greatly influence a

student's mindset, but I take full responsibility in taking the easy way out. However, I do look

back and wish she been more willing to help or encouraging at least because all it resulted in was

me sitting through an english class that did not challenge me or really teach me something that I

didn’t already know. Now that I am in college, I have been practicing my growth mindset to get

through all of my classes, and by challenging myself to take difficult classes. I refuse to let

anyones opinion on my abilities or beliefs affect my success.

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As we move along to the last reading, most readers like myself will be asking themselves

the question: How can we increase our safety from the rest of the world, while remaining in our

own borders? ​Many people assume that the​ terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were

unpredictable, however, Barber, the author of the writing piece “The Educated Student: Global

Citizen or Global Consumer” is here to tell readers that he warned us. Barber predicted the

inevitable clash between the postmodern culture and traditional tribal culture, and the problem

initiated on America’s neglect to attend to the rest of the world because they were too occupied

doing well on their own and especially in an economic sense. When Barber says, “September 11

was a brutal and perverse lesson in the inevitability of ​interdependence​ in the modern world- and

of the end of independence, where America could go alone(21).” Barber wants us to see that we

can no longer isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and trust that we are safe from the rest

of the world. Barber believes the solution is interdependence which by definition means being

mutually reliant on each other. By Barber’s stance on the importance of interdependence and not

remaining independent from the rest of the world, readers can suggest that he wants citizens to

develop a growth mindset from these horrific events. We know that the efforts made to move on

from the event of 9-11 took brainstorming and hard work, rather than continuing to do what we

were doing as a nation, and as readers we can infer that by developing a growth mindset we

would live up to the full meaning of being interdependent in a society and in the world. If we

were being taught by educators to have a growth mindset approach in being connected and

caring towards society and the world, we would see a lot more self awareness amongst citizens.

We would see citizens taking an interest in learning about the rest of the world. And we would
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also see more differences made on injustices and world problems because individuals would not

give up on their beliefs.

Barber like myself believes ​commercialization​ should not be advocated to be in our

schools and it should also not promise schools that are defunded materials in return for

commercialization in a classroom. Commercialization by definition is the process of​ introducing

a new product or production method into commerce and making it available on the market. Since

September 11, we have learned that the world was too busy glorifying commercialization rather

than attending to real world concerns such as education and foreign policy which is more of a

reason to keep it separate from the classrooms. Barber expresses his disapproval of

commercialization in schools when he says, “I don’t understand that, and I don’t think we should

put up with it, and I don’t think America should put up with it(15).” ​Barber’s point is that ​we

should not allow individuals in commercialization to buy their way into classrooms because it is

wrong and if they would not sell the same things to their own children, why should we allow it to

be sold to our children? By context clues readers can infer that Barber wants students, educators

and all citizens to develop a growth mindset to take a real stand against commercialization in our

public schools. By having a growth mindset approach towards this issue the students and

teachers will believe that they really can make a change in our education because they in fact can

through practice and constant protests. If we all believe and work towards making a change in

our educations, we will see education be center in society again.

In conclusion, I believe that the most important purpose of education in a democratic

society should be to teach all educators to develop a growth mindset. By teaching an educator

that their abilities as a citizen and educator in society and the world are influential and powerful,
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it will result in them teaching their students the same growth mindset​. The aspect of teaching this

concept in education is a simple task but it will result in the creation of successful students and

citizens in a democratic society. Successful students in society will strive to the fullest of their

potentials by making positive changes in their societies and contributing to a flourishing world.