“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?

- I think that being educated means to have received schooling of some sort, or at least
be knowledgeable about important things. I think that in the book they weren’t
educated because they didn’t know any fundamental or basic things that most people
know.

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

- I think that parents have about 90% of the responsibility to educate their kids. Most kids
probably wouldn’t willingly choose to go to the school for 12 years when they’re five
years old, so this is up to the parents to put them in school. Kids need to have some
desire and motivation to want to learn otherwise they won’t learn anything, but parents
need to put their kids in school, or at least teach them basic life skills that will be useful
and help them develop mentally.

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 that they are both important. If you’re really smart academically but have no
knowledge of the world around you, then you’re not going to make it very far. If you just
have street smarts but have no formal education, I think it would probably be easier
because you at least know how to make your way through life, but I think that both are
required and important to go through life.

4. How much of what you believe is influenced by your parents? What beliefs/values have you
inherited from your family?
- I think a lot of what I believe is influenced by my parents. I was raised by them obviously
so I learned what they taught me and I learned to have the same beliefs they do. I
inherited religious beliefs from them and political beliefs. I learned opinions about
people I don’t even know from them and I think those are the big ones.

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

- I don’t think they should be accepted without questioning them. I think when you’re
young you mostly just go with whatever your parents say, but as you get older, you can
just see what you actually think about their beliefs and see if you now agree or disagree
with them.
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?
- I think one of the funniest frames and clearest frames for me in the cartoon was the
third frame on the second page. The text reads “I learned that it was very unlikely that
I’d become an Olympic anything.” The picture shows a girl just standing there while a
ball flies toward her, and everyone is yelling at her to get the ball. I think the section
works so well because the text matches up with the picture perfectly. She doesn’t
appear to be very athletic in the picture and doesn’t make any move to even try to grab
the ball.

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.
- I think that the list seems like a negative list of things, or things that she doesn’t believe
are the most useful. Mostly, I think that some of the things she listed she thinks are
good, while others are bad. In the line where she says that current events involved
things like George Washington and Johnny Appleseed, here it was clear she didn’t
believe that these things were important at all.

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 characters she chose demonstrated the plot of a fiction writer. Especially with
their facial expressions and body language, they didn’t come across as people that you
would probably see in real life or even things you would hear in real life. I think that this
was especially noticeable on the first page where the girl said she was going to punch
her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone stand like that or even look like that, so that
contributes to the fiction techniques.

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.
 - I don’t really think that she’s alluding to Flaubert, but more to the “sentimental” notions
of education. I think she was kind of taking a trip down memory lane regarding her
education, and she was just thinking about all of her experiences in school. I think she
titled it a Sentimental Education because I’m sure remembering all these things was
sentimental, but it also taught her so many things. I think it’s also partially poking fun at
education because I got the impression she didn’t think the things she learned were the
most valuable or important.

5. What, ultimately, is Chast’s critique? What is the relationship she sees among learning, K-12
school, and education?
- Based on the cartoon, I think Chast doesn’t think the things we learn in school are the
most valuable. I think this is specifically in reference to things like math and english skills
and more academic things, but I think the things like how to be a good person and how
to be respectful were important. However, this being said, these are also things that
could be learned without an education, so I don’t totally know. Overall, I don’t think she
believes it’s the most important thing.