“What I Learned”

Part 1: Educated Intro Questions

Directions: Answer these questions THOUGHTFULLY. Each will require a thorough explanation.
Take the first 15 mins to write your answers and the next 15 to discuss in groups.

1.What does it mean to be educated?

To be educated means to have certain knowledge and experiences in order to shape your
understanding and experiences of the world around you. It’s not necessarily going to school or
learning about math, science, or english, while those are all helpful things, it doesn’t mean that
someone is educated. Being educated also means to be open minded and willing to listen to
others because knowledge is also learned through different perspectives.

2. What responsibility do parents have in educating their children?

Parents have a big responsibility in having their children educated because sometimes children
need that push in order to pursue something such as knowledge. Parents are also the one who
can provide resources and guidance as to how to gain knowledge and education and also which
direction to go in. At the same time, children also need to create their own path in which they
pursue the education they want.

3. How important is it to have an understanding of the world around you (street smarts), or is it
important to have formal or informal (learning from family, friends, experiences, etc.)
education?
I think it's very important to have an understanding of the world around you because you can
learn that through experiences or even from others. Being street smart is more important than
formal education because generally it gets you farther in life then let’s say calculus will. But at
the same time having formal education is also very important. Ideally, you want to be able to
have both.

4. How much of what you believe is influenced by your parents? What beliefs/values have you
inherited from your family?
When I was younger, my parents basically dictated my life and beliefs and I pretty much just
listened to what they said and many of my political views were also based on what my parents
thought. But as I got older, I did my own research and started paying more attention to the
news and current events, I’ve shaped my own views on a lot of things and this is solely because
in general I’ve just experienced more and heard other points of view.

5. Should family values and beliefs go unquestioned or be accepted at face value?

No, a lot of the time family beliefs are what have been passed down for generations and a lot of
the times family values can be wrong. For example with my family there are certain societal
beliefs that exist in Pakistan, where my family is from colorism is still something that a lot of
people still believe in and it’s an idea that is prevalent in Pakistan, yet when my family still
discusses and somewhat agrees with this, it’s hard for me to except it because it’s just wrong. So
no, I don’t think that family values should always be accepted no matter what because it can
make us accept wrong values and not change the wrong beliefs.

Part 2: “What I Learned”

Directions: Use the cartoon linked on the canvas page for the following questions. Be sure to
read the context information on the first page.

1.Identify one part of this cartoon, a single frame or several, that you find to be an especially
effective synergy of written and visual text. Why do you think the section you chose works so
well?
There was this one frame in which it shows the student wondering why they have to learn all
the random things that school teaches them. I think this matches the overall theme because it
shows that school just focuses on learning math, science, history, and being good rather than
actually learning valuable information. There is another frame at the end in which it says to the
student, won’t you want to be a trigonometist and the student says no I don’t want to be
basically undermining all the education she has learned in grade school because it wasn’t
important to her.

2. On the second page, the middle frame is a large one with a whole list of what Roz Chast
learned “Up through sixth grade.” Is she suggesting that all these things are foolish or
worthless? Explain your response.
No, I don’t think that she’s saying all these things because they don’t matter but rather because
it’s not all that matters. Schools focus more on this kinda information, when there are other
things that also matter education wise. Like I defined earlier, being educated is not just formal
education but it’s also something that can be attained through experiences. I think the purpose
of that frame was to emphasize that formal education is not the only thing that matters.

3. The three-page cartoon presents a narrative, a story. Discuss the extent to which Chast uses
the techniques of a fiction writer, such as plot, character, and setting.
I think the author uses more realistic fiction in this comic. Since a lot of these issues most
people go through and experience it. The art is also more realistic because it shows humans as
humans doing human things like learning and art and such. Makes the comic feel more relatable
as a student in highschool.

4. Chast subtitles her cartoon “A Sentimental Education…,” which is a reference to a French

novel of that title written by Gustave Flaubert in 1869. The American writer Henry James
described Sentimental Education as far inferior to Flaubert’s earlier and more successful novel
Madame Bovary; in fact, he characterized the 1869 work as “elaborately and massively dreary.”
Why do you think Chast uses this reference to Flaubert’s novel? Or do you think that she is not
specifically alluding to Flaubert but, rather, to more generalized “sentimental” notions of
education? Consider her audience as you respond to these questions.
The relationship between the book and the comic is that the book was described as being
dreary and elaborate and the comic was describing the education system the same way. Since
the author made it a point that there were a lot of parts in which schools taught us information
that’s not even useful yet we’re still graded on this information. That’s where there was a
similarity between book and the comic.

5. What, ultimately, is Chast’s critique? What is the relationship she sees among learning, K-12
school, and education?
Chast’s critique is of the education system, in which we are spoon fed information that in the
end might not be useful. In school we are taught more formal education rather than informal
education when both are equally as important. An example of this is when it shows her
notebook and it has a bunch of thoughts jumbled together, including notes, due dates, and
illustrations. This shows the author's view of K-12 school because it shows that it can be
confusing and includes our minds with information that might not help us depending on what
our future goals might be.