The Power of Education
By: Breanna Marie Lee Donnelly
Tags: Media Criticism, Education, Power, Representation, Voices

Chapter 1: Reminiscence

Era

The petrichor of life

Occurs when ruins

Fall upon

Castles.

Castles rise above the puddles

Of the World.

They arise from

Nothing.

Yet they amount to Everything.

Down days result in

A better day thereafter.

But when does the down day

End.

—

Power and representation. When first heard, it may first appear as the careful contemplation of power dynamics in literature or the literary analysis of novel representation but, it is much more real than that. Power and representation emerge from our core values and are presented to us daily: it is nonfiction; it is life.

When first introduced to Kresge’s Power and Representation course, the most characteristic way I can sum up my thoughts was that it was a focused literature analysis course. However, the moment I began to read some of the first readings of the course, I realized all of my assumptions about the course. And that in it of itself is the beautiful thing about learning of power and representation: you can never assume. We always hear anecdotes of stereotypes and are told not to believe in them, which we should not. But, it is also important to acknowledge that assumptions are just as important to ignore as stereotypes are. Assumptions and stereotypes work hand in hand to create biases and false connotations around communities, and it is our job to prevent further exposure and lack of representation in society because of this.

Voices are also misrepresented and ignored in this measure. For so long, we have prided ourselves on giving people equal opportunity, equal rights, and even equal access to education, but for so long all of these promises have been false. The system which has been fundamentally built in the United States lacks compassion for those that do not fit its mold. If even one hair is out of place, then you are alienated by society.

When it comes down to it, some of the preliminary ways we can alter how we misrepresent people is in the education system. Though flawed now, there are ways in which we can change the education system for the better. As of now, we learn brief histories of heroic colonial conquests hiding the massacres, valiant politicians who build their agendas on bigotry and prejudice who oppress communities, and rags to riches stories of billionaires coming from middle-class households, turning their wealth into dangers to our environment. These are the voices we hear. But what about the voices of the oppressed? Whatever happened to the academic scholars who grew up in low-income households? Who decided that white man’s burden and manifest destiny would be seen in a positive light in our education system? Why do we not hear of the tragedies happening on our border where we create traumatic experiences for those seeking salvation? The answer is simple. It all comes down to the voices.

There is a reason why some authors are more popular than others. Why some influencers maintain their voices while others struggle to rise upward, and that is because America has the uncanny pickiness for voices. When one deviates from the carefully constructed system, many Americans fail to accept opposing ideas and beliefs.

I remember going into the Power and Representation course. The first three texts I ever read were How to Mark a Book, Improving Note-Taking Skills, and Introduction: Ways of Reading. At first glance, I truly assumed that the only purpose of these texts was to acclimate students to life as a university student; to show them that university is different from what they had learned from high school.

Immediately I was proved wrong as I read these excerpts and realized that reading, though immersive, is also highly reflective to these authors. While many criticize the supposed ‘vandalism’ of books and novels, these authors praise those who do as it demonstrates the careful thought and reflection the reader has done. It demonstrates that the reader has heard the voice. It seems that these authors advocate for ending your immersion occasionally for this contemplation to not only better your understanding of the material, but to also comprehend the voices contained in the text.

Immersing myself in the worlds I read has been a large part of my life, however, I do not think I have ever thought about reading in the way these authors do. I will always emerge into the worlds I read whether fantasy, sci-fi, or an article, and I believe that is just as important. Data visualization is something I have always been passionate about and I believe that the only way to truly understand a voice, to truly understand a perspective, is to read the work as though it is yourself. When you put yourself in someone else’s perspective, it truly becomes a powerful voice.

I have always valued the simplicity of emerging myself in new realms without a second thought, and yet these authors’ descriptions reveal to the reader that the deliberation of the message should always be thought of with the utmost consideration.

It is books and reading that grant us the innate ability to transcend worlds beyond our own and learn of realms and realities that we never fathomed. But, it is important to note that sometimes these realities are right outside your front door. If you were to walk into the living room of your next-door neighbor, you would be experiencing just a snippet of their reality; whether that be wealth, poverty, grief, happiness, you express your consideration of their reality and their voice. Yet, this process seems to become difficult for people when it comes to reading books. When students are handed books in class, many students put off the reading: they procrastinate, they read summaries instead, they do not hear the voice. I believe this is a large fault in the American education system. We have devised a system where students do not read important, life-altering novels. When students read the summaries of books, all they take in is the basic plot rather than the message of the story. Even some summaries give students major themes, but nothing can replace the experience of hearing unheard voices.

In this way, books transcend all physical and mental barriers: working their magic as they demonstrate the worlds we cannot envision on our own. They become a metaphysical medium, seeming to exist across all planes of existence and time. They tell stories that happened hundreds of years ago, but when you walk out of your front door, you realize that you live surrounded by that story every day.

When it comes to power, it is difficult for anyone individual to determine a singular, succinct definition for it. Power comes in many forms and venues. Eric Liu describes power as, “the capacity to make others do what you would have them do.” However, power is not only our ability to control others but our ability to control ourselves as well. Though power indeed comes in the capacity of controlling others, humans have the rightful, innate desire to have control and power over their own lives. A possible way this can be done is through the way of voices. Voices are constantly suppressed in society because of the abilities of those in power.

In her novel, A Dream Called Home, Grande takes back the power those have exerted over her through her lifetime of writing and finding a community of her own. After years of her voice being suppressed in the American education system, Grande finds this voice in her writing by unequivocally explaining her story in an evocative and powerful manner. Furthermore, we further see the importance of voice in bell hooks’ Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education. First, pertaining solely to the title of hooks’ piece, we can quite clearly see the point of her work. When it comes to the education system, it is quite easy for people coming from backgrounds with no power to remain silent. This is what makes it so easy for wrongful and incorrect histories to be heard, for misrepresentation to occur, and even for a lack of participatory opportunity. When it comes to voices in the American education system, there has been a history of perpetuating voices of those who already have power in wealth, race, or influence. hooks states that, “we choose voices to hear and voices to silence.” This is one of the most conclusive and thematic excerpts from hooks’ piece and truly displays the inner workings of the American education system.

A rendering of the Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta of Christopher Columbus. Though the context of the image is Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic, it is not uncommon to see images such as these which exhibit a sense of heroism and positivity in the background of the image due to the inaccurate portrayal of power in the 15th century.

For example, a popular example of how power has been asserted in the American education system is the story of Christopher Columbus. Columbus decided to take his crew of ninety men to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in order to map out a new pathway for trading, specifically to India. Since the world is round, he reasoned that he would be able to travel around the world to reach India. However, he never reached India, instead he set sail to what is now the Bahamas. He, “called the indigenous people ‘Indians,’ an inaccurate name that unfortunately stuck.” because of the power Spain and Columbus and his crew exerted over the Indigenous people and history. I did not learn to call Indigenous people “Indian” as so many have, but I chalk that up to the fact that roughly five hundred years, there have been instances where Indigenous voices have been heard. Yet, children all across the country learn of how Columbus was the first to find America, which he did not. Children learn of the name of their country, actually named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian merchant, which gave no credibility to the Indigenous people of the Americas, and instead, power was exerted over them to not only name their land but take it away from them too.

Even more, because of the American education system, Americans are taught that Thanksgiving is simply the celebration of the Pilgrims and Indigenous people gathering together in peace. However, the true story is a story of tragedy and a great loss for the Indigenous people of the Americas. Maya Salam rightfully puts the blame on, “school textbooks with details often so abridged, softened or out of context that they are ultimately made false; children’s books that simplify the story to its most pleasant version.” This is a direct example of the concept that it is victors who tell the history. It is these victors who overwhelmingly have power in society, and their voices are then lent more credibility in academic and professional settings. Schools do not even teach us of the tribes whose land we live on, the land that colonizers stole so long ago. Of course, there are schools like the University of California — Santa Cruz who constantly remind their students of the land students learn, reside, and live at: the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. This process is one that elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools do not take on because they are not obligated to. The reason the University of California — Santa Cruz reminds their students of this is because of an important concept called land acknowledgment. This is an important step to helping to distribute the dynamics of power in the American education system and especially history. Land acknowledgments, “help create awareness of the cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples and the processes of colonization and subjugation that have contributed to that erasure.” In all honesty, land acknowledgment is just one of many steps for the restitution of Indigenous peoples because if a massacre of Indigenous people, a cultural erasure of Indigenous history, and the seizure of Indigenous land have occurred and been covered up by jocular and untroubled history, then it is quite evident that the exertion of power has occurred in the education system.

—

Power is indefinable. Power in its nature is subjective and it is up to the individual to interpret power in their way. Yet, there is still a common power structure that will always exist; it is the victors, the politicians, the wealthy, or those historically known to have influence who have been known to take advantage of their power and through that, making academic and professional environments favor them. There are critical inequities that occur in the education system as the United States has been structured to favor those with more power, and those without that power will struggle to get it as they try to advance in society and try to advance their power as those with power ridicule their efforts or find ways to take advantage of the system. It is through education in which we gain power, and as a community, we can gain power back by retaliating against those who have oppressed the education of so many of us for so long which makes it crucial to restructure the power structure within the education system.