Access to Education--Reflection

As I wrote my essay on access to education, the idea struck me that if we do not appreciate our access to education, in its various forms (both formal and informal), we are missing out even more than if we did not have this access at all. This is especially evident in the case of Luttrell's students--women who undervalued their own common sense, strengthening their desire for a formal education, in Luttrell's class, to help them "become somebody". These women did make significant contributions to their families and to their workplace environment (even when it was a more menial job than that of more formally educated women). However, because they felt a need to be up to par with women like Wendy Luttrell, who could make a name for themselves on the basis of their smarts and their "somebody"-ness, they seemed to want to cut ties with their past education. It costs more than just money to have access to formal education, especially in the case of Doreen's son Tony, who probably would not be pushed to do work in the fields that he showed interest and promise in because his predilection towards them was viewed as mere common sense. In order to truly have an "education that matters" as Edmundson would say, I believe the learner needs to appreciate both what they learn and what they come in already knowing.