The Educated Person
In this statement I will address four aspects of an educated person, social, political, economic and ethical. The social self has to do with relationships with others. The political self looks at how the society is organized. The economic self is concerned with the distribution of finances. The ethical self contemplates the question, "what is right and just?" All of these selves are part of who we are as people. The educated person is one who has developed each of these selves so that they all work together for a single purpose, to educate and improve the lives of others.
Social Self
I believe that being educated means that you are coming out of a closed minded view of the world. It means that the more you learn, you realize how very little you actually know. Because of this fact you are able to listen to the points of view of those who are different from yourself. You are able to accept that there are people who do not look like you, talk like you, and think the same way as you do. You can embrace people's differences and not see them as inferior to yourself. To become educated means that you to have respect for all things and people, above all yourself. It means that you achieve your highest potential in what ever you do. You strive for and achieve a life in which body, mind and spirit are free from toxins. This includes physical toxins such as drugs to mental and spiritual toxins like hate and jealousy. Becoming educated means realizing your strengths and weaknesses and working from them towards an understanding of who you are in relation to those around you. It means that all of these things you achieve for yourself you also want for others. It means that you will help others achieve what you have by being a positive role model. Being a positive role model means that you are always conscious of your actions and words knowing that you can never ask of others what you do not do yourself. Being a positive role model also means that you are an educator who teaches what it is to become educated.
Political Self
Being educated means that you believe all people have a vital role to play in the society. You know that all people regardless of color or gender have the ability to think and reason. For this reason you have a commitment to education. This means that you support teachers and families in their efforts to produce self-thinking, problem-solving, just individuals who will come to play a vital role in society. This also means that you fight for change in any educational practice that teaches self-hate, prejudice and closed-minded thinking. Being educated means that you know that in our society is organized in a hierarchical way, meaning everyone does not get an equal share of power, wealth or education.
The few at the top have most of the resources while the majorities, who are at the bottom, have sparse resources. The educated person knows this hierarchy exists because of our ideology. We share the belief that people fall where we do in our hierarchical system because of their merit. If a person is poor it is because he is not smart or talented enough to get to the top of the pyramid. An educated person is one who will challenge this ideology because she knows that it benefits some and not others. An educated person is one that knows all people are entitled to equal access to society resources (Ryan 1976).Economic Self
An educated person is one who understands we live in a capitalistic society that is organized in a hierarchical way. An educated person contemplates what this means for everyone in the society. There are manual laborers, mental laborers and business owners. The business owners have most of the money and the manual workers have the least amount of money. Although the manual laborers have the least amount of wealth they comprise most of the population. An educated person is one who looks at this distribution of wealth and asks, "does capitalism benefit everyone in the society?" She also asks, "if capitalism does benefit everyone why is it that most of the people in the society have the least amount of wealth? If capitalism does not benefit everyone then why has it been in practice for so long without question?"
Ethical Self
An educated person is one who is always thinking, "what is right and just?" An educated person knows that all people are entitled to respect no matter what their age, gender or culture is. Respect is not only how you treat people but also what you think of them. Being educated means that you know no one person is inferior to another. Behavior is the only thing that is inferior. Behavior is a description of a person's character; thus, an educated person judges people by their character not by how much money or power they have. An educated person is one who believes in fairness and honesty. She always speaks the truth and gives equal treatment to all. Being educated means that you are kind and considerate of the feelings of others. It means that you take into consideration the needs of others and not just your own. You are a person who can be trusted, trusted to keep your word and work for excellence in what ever you do. An educated person produces high quality work because she expects the same of others. She knows you can't expect of someone what you do not do yourself. An educated person sees herself as part of a community acting as a partner in an effort to better society.
In The Classroom
In this section I will talk about what a teacher would do to help produce an educated person. There are specific ways a teacher can set up her classroom and curriculum to create an atmosphere that turns students into scholars. The first thing a teacher must do is to create a democratic atmosphere. Second, she needs to get students to ask questions. Third, the students need to in work cooperative groups to come up with answers to questions asked.
An Equitable Atmosphere
The physical environment of an equitable classroom is an exhibit of a fair playing field. One of the most important factors in the creation of an equitable environment is the placement of the teachers desk. It is not in front of the students. Instead the teacher's desk is placed on the side or behind the children. This tells the students that the teacher is not a lecturer or an authoritarian who does not take their needs into consideration. The student's desks should be arranged in-groups not rows facing the teacher. This helps the children to understand that they are important in the classroom. When the desks are in-groups the classroom environment becomes one in which the students feel free to exchange ideas. Another way the physical environment can show that the student's ideas are important is to have their work displayed in the classroom. This also helps the students realize that the classroom belongs to them it is not just the teacher. The ideological atmosphere is one in which the teacher believes all students can achieve success in and out of the classroom. She shows this by always listening to her student's ideas knowing that all thoughts are valid ones. The teacher also excepts only quality work and appropriate behavior from all of her students. She expects her students to treat others with equity and respect. The teacher also expects her students to respect themselves by always achieving to their highest ability.
Asking Questions
Answering Questions
Students should form groups to answer questions so that they can share ideas. When students work together to come up with solutions they learn to listen to the ideas of others. They learn to value and challenge the opinions of others. It also helps the individual student refine their thoughts (Pasch 1996). As the teacher one should constantly ask students to think about the question in different ways. Help them to understand that there are multiple ways to approach a problem. Reinforce the production of creative ideas never putting them down because even an idea that is not practical can be beneficial if it is used to teach that making an attempt is worth while (Holman, Goetz, and Baer 1976).
When teachers create an equitable atmosphere where students are critically thinking and their ideas are valued they begin the process of becoming educated (Banks 1994). Students are an important part of a classroom community. Because of this they realize they are an important part of a larger community and society.
