Frederick Douglass: Why Go To College?
Why Go To College?
Why go to college? Why would someone spend thousands of dollars to sit in yet another classroom? My uncle says “people that get a degree make over a million dollars more in a lifetime.” My dad counters that with “the world needs ditch diggers too.” I came to college to start my life, to become an independent man who finds his niche among society. I suppose some people can do that outside of school but I find college to be an optimum transition to the adult life as it teaches practical skills, instills a greater appreciation of the world, and makes one discontent with inequities in the community. Although Lucius Seneca denies that a liberal education prepares anyone for life, college develops necessary skills to transition …show more content…
Frederick Douglass, who grew up as slave but would later become one of the most influential African-Americans in U.S. history, describes this precisely in “Learning To Read.” Douglass describes how he learned to read partially by the help of his masters mistress who taught him the alphabet and partially by the help of white kids on the street who helped him form those letters into words and sentences. Around age twelve he got ahold of a book called “The Colombian Orator.” Douglass describes how in one story, a slave was able to change his masters mind about slavery, and was consequentially set free. In the same book he read a speech by Irish activist Richard Sheridan from which he got “a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights.”(Douglass, 48) This speech opened douglass’s eyes to the injustice of slavery. He said “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light that a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery.”(Douglass, 49) By reading this speech, Douglass realized the injustice that is slavery and that he was not the only one that knew this. Douglass later said “As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! That very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish.”(Douglass,49) Douglass was no longer satisfied with a life of bondage nor was he okay with others being left in
Why go to college? Why would someone spend thousands of dollars to sit in yet another classroom? My uncle says “people that get a degree make over a million dollars more in a lifetime.” My dad counters that with “the world needs ditch diggers too.” I came to college to start my life, to become an independent man who finds his niche among society. I suppose some people can do that outside of school but I find college to be an optimum transition to the adult life as it teaches practical skills, instills a greater appreciation of the world, and makes one discontent with inequities in the community. Although Lucius Seneca denies that a liberal education prepares anyone for life, college develops necessary skills to transition …show more content…
Frederick Douglass, who grew up as slave but would later become one of the most influential African-Americans in U.S. history, describes this precisely in “Learning To Read.” Douglass describes how he learned to read partially by the help of his masters mistress who taught him the alphabet and partially by the help of white kids on the street who helped him form those letters into words and sentences. Around age twelve he got ahold of a book called “The Colombian Orator.” Douglass describes how in one story, a slave was able to change his masters mind about slavery, and was consequentially set free. In the same book he read a speech by Irish activist Richard Sheridan from which he got “a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights.”(Douglass, 48) This speech opened douglass’s eyes to the injustice of slavery. He said “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light that a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery.”(Douglass, 49) By reading this speech, Douglass realized the injustice that is slavery and that he was not the only one that knew this. Douglass later said “As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! That very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish.”(Douglass,49) Douglass was no longer satisfied with a life of bondage nor was he okay with others being left in