Shah 1

Prit Shah
Ms. Thompson
AP Lang Block 2 Skinny A
May 18, 2015
Draft #2
James Baldwin IJWBA Paper
Baldwin, the author of the A Talk to Teachers essay, asserts that the true purpose for
education is to create a society in which all people are obedient; however, Rose does not have the
same ideals on education. His belief is that the true purpose of education is for students to
improve through guidance for self benefit, rather than improvement for the benefit of society.
Education is something that can be interpreted in many different ways, as Rose and Baldwin both
interpret it in different ways; however, education is for the benefit of both the individual and
society.
Rose describes how he believes that the education system is trying to increase economic
opportunities for students and help them self develop. However, Rose says The vocational
track, however, is most often a place for those who are just not making it, a dumping ground for
the disaffected (2). Society is trying to help students learn effective job skills in order to develop
themselves and gain knowledge about what the real world will be like, but students are not
gaining the actual help they need. It is incontrovertible that students have the potential to do
great things and make a difference and also do something better for themselves. They just need
proper guidance, encouragement, and motivation as Rose believes this is what the education
system is trying to do.

Shah 2
Baldwin describes how he believes that society can only improve itself if people decide
to change society and use their education in order to benefit the society and its rules. Baldwin
says that this is the only way that society can change for the better. Baldwin also says, It is your
responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person (par. 19). As
people grow older, they become more educated and often times they will have opinions about
society as Baldwin suggests; however, the people can be educated and not want to change society
as they do not have to feel as if it is their responsibility to change it. Also, as Baldwin describes a
child may be seeing and experiencing a lot of what is happening in society, it is not plausible that
the child is processing what is happening in society and making solid conclusions about what is
going on around them for sure. Children are at an age where a lot of new ideas are being
introduced to them everyday, and often times they dont have the necessary understanding to
form opinions about the ideas, leaving them in in a state of quandary.
Baldwin believes that education is shaped around society, but Rose believes that
education should be shaped around students. Education works in many ways, so it can be doing
one or the other or both, but it is just dependent on how education is perceived in society. By
using both Roses and Baldwins ideas on education, enhanced rather than impeded.