A Homemade Education and Education and the Autodidact

A Homemade Education:

I enjoyed this text, because of the way Malcolm X took a negative experience, like being in prison, and turned positive by using his time there to further his education and read so many books. “My reading of books, months passed without ever thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life.” Malcolm wanted so badly to learn, that he took his education into his own hands and started to teach himself to read and write. I felt that his passion for learning was what made his text so enthralling. I liked how at a point in time he could not read, or write, but now after educating himself, he was sharing his story with us via text.

Malcolm is the opposite of the Rodriguez in my opinion. They both found a deep passion in reading, but Malcolm was getting much more out of it. His mind was expanding and he was thinking critically rather than just being filled with information like a piggy bank. Malcolm’s experience with education made him feel free and enlightened rather than like he was losing something.
“As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students.”
I think as the opposite of a ‘scholarship boy’ Malcolm X was getting much more out of his education, because he is able to expand ideas in his mind and appreciate the education so much more. Perhaps, the idea of a homemade education is more effective than the Banking Theory. Malcolm did not see his ignorance leaving him as a negative thing, or blame education for it in the way other writers have in this section. He “attacked his ignorance”, appreciating its departure rather than blaming education for its loss.

Education and the Autodidact:

This story was much more difficult for me to read. The most interesting quote that I found in the text was “educational entitlement, is ignorant of the right to be ignorant that is conferred by certificates of knowledge.” This quote stood out to me because we were talking a lot about the definition of ignorance and how education causes us to lose some of our ignorance over the time in which we are educated. This quote seems to be agreeing with just this, and saying that in thinking your entitled to education, you are acting ignorant of your right to be ignorant (staying uneducated).

I was a bit confused in how this text switched from themes of education to themes of culture. I could somewhat follow how the idea of social class intertwined the two, but I feel like I somewhat missed the overall idea. I am sure we will discuss it in class, and it will become more clear.

The overall understanding which I gathered from this reading was that there is more to being “cultured” than being educated. So overall this essay is criticizing education? I think this quote references this idea: “ Self-made men, they cannot have the familiar relation to culture which authorizes the liberties and audacities of those who are linked to it by birth, that is, by nature and essence.”