From+History

=Education in Twain's Time=



__Background__
===An organized system of education was not fully established until the 1840's and as a result, there was a greater lack of opportunity for education, especially in the lower classes. Although there might not be one certain event that exemplified the discrimination of those with no education, the entire concept of there not being ways for education unless you were rich, is example in itself. In other words, the only example needed, is the fact that those who were educated were the higher class and rich population in contrast with the lower classes who would ultimately not even receive and opportunity for such a luxury.=== ===The main factor that divided those who had an education and those who did not, was to no one's surprise, money. It was that which separated people into classes, ranks, positions, stereotypes, etc. To those who had an education, it was a world of possibility and opportunity. Unfortunately for those who did not have an education, it was a longer road to travel, and it was a lot bumpier. Fortunately, an organized system of education was coming into existence, which would forever change education for the common person.===

The Common School Movement
===There was finally a time when the idea of educating the general public, even the low class, became something in closer reach. Fortunately enough, there were those individuals who sought more for the commoners and the poor who worked to give them an opportunity for something more, and that something more was an education. A few of these were [|Horace Mann] and [|Henry Barnard] who helped create state-wide common school systems available to everyone. In addition to wanting more opportunities for children, they sought to create more bonds between the classes, in this case being, education which they also believed would prevent crime, poverty, and could possibly provide some social stability.===

Twain's Critique of Education
===From very early on, education was mostly a luxury to those who could afford it, not only in the United States, but in most places of the world in most of history. Although education didn't and doesn't define success or failure, as proven by history, it does play a major role in opportunity. In other words, it is not education that defines the what people become in life, education just increases opportunity. It is the individual's choice on what they do with that opportunity.=== ===In __Huckleberry Finn__ Twain expresses a real-life situation in which education can change the views or opinions of some people, even the lower class. Even the lower classes were accustomed to being belittled or getting pushed aside, especially in terms of education which is successfully demonstrated in the occasion that Huck's father, a low class citizen, assumes that his son will be a different person, in attitude or mind set, because of his acquiring of knowledge. By creating a realistic situation with even father and son, it demonstrates what the public view might have thought in those times about education and how it did not even seem as a realistic goal for the low class. Twain just exemplified how not only had the higher class pushed the lower class down, but also how the lower class had accepted it.===

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