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Education is always a hot topic around the world owing to its importance to the development of countries and the children's future. However, the real purpose of education is ambiguous for us that why education exist and what education will bring to us eventually? In my opinion, people are learning different things in different ways every day, and those lessons are so-called education.
Indeed, the destination of education is guiding people to the ultimate meaning of their life which is continuously be searched by our ancestors.
Before we approach the deepest part of our soul, all of us are living on our "lonely places" as Iyer mentions in his aritcle.
In the process of searching the truth, we must strengthen our faith and apply what we learn to our daily life, we must understand people around us as mentioned in Appiah's article - "The Shattered Mirror." Fortunately, there are some hints in one of Gaines' novels - "A Lesson Before Dying," and they are also supported by Iyer and Appiah's articles.
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In the novel, Gaines depicts a story which is set in Bayonne, Louisiana in the 1940s, about an uneducated black man, Jefferson, who is wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to death. Nevertheless, his godmother wants him to die with dignity, so she persuades two men, Grant and Reverend Ambrose, to teach Jefferson how to be a man before his death.
In "Lonely Places," Iyer clarifies that lonely places are the places do not fit in, and it is a state of mind.
In "The Shattered Mirror," Appiah presents an idea of cosmopolitanism, and he supports that we can connect the world by sharing values instead of separating people by their different identities.
All of us are learning different things intentionally or unintentionally by different ways every day; those processes are so-called education. In "A Lesson Before Dying," there are numerous lessons learned by a magnitude of different characters throughout the novel. Among all the characters, perhaps Grant learns the most. In the beginning, Grant is described as one of the few educated men in the black community.
This formal education makes him think that he is superior to others and it is obvious because he shows disrespect to his aunt and the Reverend Ambrose. Although Grant is not a racist, he has no respect to his community, and he is hesitant to help Jefferson because he thinks his education affords him greater social value than that.
However, after the interaction with Jefferson, Grant makes his transformation and realizes that there was much more to be a man than his original understanding, and it can be illustrated by what he said: "My eyes were closed before this moment, Jefferson. My eyes have been closed all my life." (Gaines 225).
This is the lesson Grant take under the story of this novel, and the education under the process of teaching Jefferson to die with dignity is changing himself quietly. On the other hand, Paul, the sheriff's deputy, also unintentionally be educated in this story. Gradually, Paul finds out that what white people think about black people that they are inferior to white folk is false.
It can be demonstrated in the novel that he is the only white person to be a friend of black people. Also, Paul learns how to truly care for the people around him without looking to the race and some other identities. Therefore, people on the earth are taking lessons every time every time unintentionally, everything they have experienced would teach them something useful to their life.
Indeed, the destination of these educations is guiding people to the ultimate meaning of their life. Nevertheless, the road to the truth is hard to find, and almost no people can find or even care about the answer which is covered by a veil.
In "A Lesson Before Dying," The struggles of Grant and Jefferson have a common thesis which is searching for the ultimate meaning of life. Grant sees that regardless of what he does, the black students he taught remain in an endless loop - continue in the same jobs, the same poverty and same slave as their ancestor.
Therefore, Grant gradually becomes hopeless of making a difference and treats his life as meaningless. For Jefferson, he wants to figure out whether he is man or animal throughout the novel. Although Jefferson's confusion is primal, it is the same as Grant's struggle - they do not know why they are alive and what is the meaning of their life.
Actually, "the shattered mirror" between Grant and Jefferson brings them together, despite the differences that their different situation and experience, the conflict of meaning and identity is a common thing shared by them and this is the concept which Appiah introduces in his article "The Shattered Mirror."
Jefferson, the young man on death row, is going to die, but so are we all. His death sentence is unfair, but so is life. In fact, all of us are ignorant before we find the ultimate meaning of our life, and it is endorsed by what Grant said in the novel: "And that's all we are, Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we each one of us, individually decide to become something else" (Gaines 192).
In the novel, Grant must help Jefferson shape his remaining days to give meaning to his life and dignity to its end. However, Grant is living on his own "lonely places" because the more Grant searches for the answers, the more he comes to see he is struggling not just with the problem of Jefferson's life and death, but with his own and ours as well.
In the article "Lonely Places," Iyer gives us a definition that "Lonely places are not just isolated places, for loneliness is a state of mind." (Iyer 34). Grant is isolated from his soul or even himself because he misses the self-awareness. In the novel, Tante Lou makes sacrifices to send Grant to the college because she wants Grant can be educated and then return home to contribute to his people and his community.
However, he does nothing to better his lot and always criticizes his surroundings. That is why he lives on the "lonely places," he is not fit into his community or even his soul, and he does not know how to be a man and how to behave in the life. In fact, most of us are similar to Grant. For most of the time, we are confusing about why we are alive.
Still, there is some wise person in the world, and they are closer to the truth than other people. In the novel, there is a wise man - Reverend Ambrose. Both of Grant and Reverend Ambrose desire the same outcome from Jefferson, but they disagree about what it means to be an educated man. Grant takes advantage of his college experience and believes that it gives him all the knowledge he needs.
However, being educated is far beyond that superficial knowledge such as writing, reading, and arithmetic. A people only know this general knowledge is still ignorant. Moreover, Ignorance is like the mythical beast who can grow ten heads for each head that is slain. Education is the sword that accomplishes the eradication of social, spiritual and philosophical ignorance - but only by continuous application to daily life, and it is the only way to find out the ultimate meaning of life.
On the road of finding the ultimate meaning, faith is necessary because it can enlight people's soul and give people power and courage. Reverend Ambrose is very wise to the realities of life although he is not "educated" as Grant. He knows the depth of people's soul, and he also knows how to guide people to the truth.
He wants the dying man, Jefferson, can have the hope of an afterlife and that is the most powerful thing that can encourage Jefferson bravely straight to the death. That is why he does not want Grant to reveal his lack of faith to Jefferson and asks him to lie that he believes in God and reassure Jefferson of the extension of Heaven.
On the other hand, Grant is naive because he never opens his eyes to his surroundings and doesn't know other people's feelings. Therefore, education is not only limited to some general knowledge; it is about everything in our daily life. We have to apply the knowledge we learn in class to our life, to care about the things around us, and we will gradually find out the faith for us.
We must be open for our surroundings, as Appiah mentions in "The Shattered Mirror," we should acknowledge and understand the people around us without tagging them with some labels. That is the way we approach ourselves and to find out the ultimate meaning of life.
In conclusion, life's meaning is still ambiguous to us. Perhaps some individuals can measure their education by marking the progress toward finding the meaning of their own life. But surely, almost none of us are closing to the truth.
Work Cited
The Destination of Education. (2019, Nov 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-destination-of-education-essay
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