I wrote a discussion board earlier this week about the “divinity of ugliness” and I remembered another endearing story for which this phrase would apply. Radio is a story about a mentally challenged boy who accidentally wonders onto a high school football field and is then taken under the wing of the head coach, Coach Jones. Like Precious, Radio too was illiterate but despite his learning disability Coach Jones begins teaching him his letters. Although Radio is capable of learning, his disability would prevent him from ever really being a good student, but he remains as “assistant” football coach to this day. Like Precious he had a teacher continually pushing him to do better, to never settle. I thought another interesting aspect was the expression of language in both stories. As Precious learned to read she was able to express herself better through writing than through verbal communication and in Radio, he was always carrying around an old radio. The language in both stories is demonstrative of a lack of education but it is interesting how in both cases new means of communication develop. Radio cannot adequately express himself through words or even written language but I think he did so through the music on his radio. I remember one of my favorite passages in Push was when Precious compared the poor man sharing his one hot dog with “Jesus and his fish” and there was a scene very similar to this in Radio. Radio’s community came together over Christmas and gave him a truckload of various supplies, everything from basic needs to things like a toaster oven. He opened them each enthusiastically but the next day he loaded them all up in his little shopping cart and he distributed each gift to different people around his neighborhood that needed them. In this moment he became more God-like I think than the good people who originally gave him the things, because he turned around and shared everything he had with someone else. These two stories made me think, is it sometimes true that education, literacy, pulls us farther and farther away from pure simple truths? Education is no doubt vitally important, but maybe literacy sometimes makes us forget what we used to not know. -Elizabeth
I think I get what you mean. It makes me think of of Genesis and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I think it is impossible not to get a little "bad" with the "good" as we learn/lose some innocence with experience...it's just life.
ReplyDeleteI think all we can really do is think for ourselves as we take in new information...it's so easy to just take on the mindset/ideologies of those teaching.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI never thought about it that way before. I used to always think that education always made people and life better, but in your examples, it shows us that some of the most basic life lessons are not learned through a growth in education. In the Radio example, I find it absolutely amazing that one person can know so much kindness and have so much heart and compassion when he received so littel in his life. I think that education can pull us away from the simple truths. I think education can make us mean and spiteful people. I think that education makes us feel superior to others. I mean look at how much emphasis is placed on educational success in high schools. The top 30 at my school was a coveted thing. The top 30 students in any class were the "successful" ones. They were the "most popular." They were going to succeed. Not only was the competition to make the top 30 list extremely high, but the people on this list had and still have so much pressure to succeed. To return as a top 30 student with nothing to show for the last 4-6 years would be an embarrassment. I think education is vital and should be an equal opportunity, but I think we have begun to place too much emphasis on who has the best education and who is the smartest. Some of the most important life lessons are the ones we learn about compassion and love for others. Academics often make us forget that.
Elizabeth Willbanks
I feel like Push was actually telling the world that getting an education is the best thing a person can do if they don’t have a good life. Education can get people out of their bad situations like it was doing for Precious. I don’t think you can compare Precious and Radio on the bases of education. Yes, without an education Radio is still managing to be a good person, however he is not capable of learning the skills that are needed to literacy. He is in an entirely different world than Precious. Radio didn’t come from a family that abused him, emotionally, sexually, or physically whereas Precious did. She could not have left that life behind without getting an education. People would not have taken pity on her where she lived even if she did have a disability. I don’t think their lives are very comparable because their circumstances are so different. They live two different lives in two different worlds.
ReplyDeleteLiz,
ReplyDeleteI hope that it is just the opposite, don't you? I understand what you're saying and I agree that there is a certain kindness in innocence that can be lost, but I think that it has less to do with education and literacy and more to do with societal emphasis on things of lesser importance- like appearance and materialism. For sake of conversation, I am presuming that we all just believe that this inherent goodness exists in the first place. Of course, anyone with a toddler who has seen firsthand that, developmentally, they are wired to be selfish at that age might have a thing or two to say about whether or not we are good, bad, or neutral. Also, I’m not going to ask what “God-like” means even though I am 100% positive it means something very different for each person in this class. I’m going to assume we’re talking about a beneficent Jesus-like figure, not a hell, fire, and brimstone vengeful guy. Although with the example of the toddler that would be an interesting conversation.
First of all, I do think that innocence exists and that, sometimes, in innocence we see the true goodness of Nature. But I think it’s wrong to assume that the existence of innocence automatically assumes that education is the same as corruption; or even that education corrupts. I don't think that a lack of education makes one extra compassionate or anything. I think that it is just the opposite. I think- hope, at least- that more people would fight against social injustice if they understood its breadth and depth. If they were educated about the atrocities in the Darfur, for instance, they would do something about it. Surely it is a lack of education that causes inaction and selfishness.
Do you think that Precious had a sense of selflessness while she was illiterate? She seemed racist, homophobic, and violent to me, not necessarily saint-like. (Not that I’m blaming her for that, just stating that that’s how she was depicted). She gains understanding as she gains education. She accepts addicts because her friend is one, she learns to accept homosexuals because of Ms. Rain, Celie from The Color Purple, and Jermaine. This happens because she educates herself. She is able to gain understanding through her knowledge. Look at Ms. Rain as well. Her education both her traditional education and her awareness of the problems in Harlem cause her to be the most altruistic character in our novel.
Thank you all for your interesting comments! Lindsey, i do agree with you that education is vitally important, at the same time it is safe to say that like anything else in life education is a give and take. It is necessary, it is enhancing, and it also takes away. I guess the true pondering of my post is that "naivety" or innocence is the cost of knowledge, but i do not think it can be said whether this is good or bad, if anything as Lindsey pointed out it is most assuredly both. I am very excited to see opposition to my post though, it is always intriguing to hear new ideas; for that I do value my education. :)
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