Education in ‘One Amazing Thing’

Moath Abaoud

Professor: Bieber

28, November, 2012

Education in ‘One Amazing Thing’

The play One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni (Divakaruni)is laden with many contemporary themes about the modern American life style. He has referred to the colleges, students and teachers for many times in the play, putting an emphasis on the role of education in making personalities, communities and determining lifestyle of the next generations. The author of ‘One Amazing Thing’, is a keen observer of college education of USA, giving the reader many ideas about the American nation as a whole. The author has clearly conveyed the message that American education system should be checked for being so much liberal and teacher status should be checked to make their performance and earning better.

Education set ups are the mirror for peeping through the intellectual level of the nation and the future prospects. The US college education revolves around the themes of equality, liberty, craze for leadership and practical plans for future research and projects. One can very easily have an idea of the level of student learning and academics being offered by going through the curriculum and the assessment plans. Most of the assessments are creative and research based. There is no time old cramming and poor learning happening there.

Moreover, these colleges are also hubs of cultural activities. All these features make these colleges ultra mode and liberal where nothing is in proper control. The cultural activities are also very liberal.When we go further deep into understating of American colleges, we can have an idea of the cultural changes going on in the community. These colleges are hubs of students belonging from countless local and international creeds and cults. Blacks, Whites and African Americans are the major types seen but, the number of Asian and Arab students is also on steep rise (Universitylanguage.com). Some of them spend all of the energy in preserving their culture and practices from the influence of other cultures, while others are quite happily mixing and learning all good things of other cultures; enriching their current cultures. All of the issue being created due to this ultra liberal approach towards cultures has created many conflicts in these colleges and they need to be fixed.

 Moreover, the state of teachers is not satisfactory in most of the colleges. Teachers, especially in the local and minority colleges are suffering from overburden, underpayment and disrespect (Huffingtonpost.com, 2011). Students in these colleges are not ready to make things easy for teachers because they do not have bright academic background. So, most of the teachers have to work very hard for keeping the result at a reasonable level. Since there is no extra compensation for these extra efforts, they have to be content with what they are being paid. Chitra Divakaruni has described the same situation as “But teachers were meagerly paid and resembled chewed up sticks of sugar cane and I had no desire to become one” (Divakaruni, p.110).

Moreover, students in these colleges do not have hope for a bright future even after superb academic performance due to the racist and ethnic grudge of the white community. Though, things have changed to a great extent but, there are still hard liners on both of the sides. So, these students are very bad at conduct and teachers suffer from bullying and other bad conduct frequently.

 Moreover, affordable education is something that is greatly missing in most of the regions of America. Most of the American regional colleges and educational systems are very expensive for the residents to afford. No doubt, there are government efforts to make these colleges less heavy on the pockets but still, these concessions are not enough for coping with the rising inflation and economic crisis effects. The best thing that is lacking from most of the colleges is the factor of learning and earning together. In order to reduce the cost of higher education, colleges should introduce some skill based jobs for the students, within the confines of the college. There are many examples of the same practice at primary and higher schools. Students work for a proper time and after that they either manufacture goods or operate some simple machines for the purpose of making goods that can be sold out I the market and college can very easily manage the expense.

Moreover, the idea of introducing a university in very county can also help in lowering the cost of higher education. When every county has university in it, the community of the local students is going to have many benefits. They are going to save the rent of transportation and dissipation of energy on the way. Moreover, they can remain in contact with the faculty and other important personalities related to the university. Furthermore, we can start internship plans for the students graduating from these universities. This will create a faculty that is more familiar with the operational nature of the college and the type of people they are going to teach. It will create temporary and permanent jobs for the local community and the university can have great impact on the local economics. If we have to meet the targets of local and global literacy we, have to introduce a new education system based on the principle that it is a state funded public good.

Many arguments and advantages can be drawn out of this system. All of the citizens will have access to quality education and there will be no discrimination on any grounds. There will be better and more reliable jobs for the teachers and faculty and other staff of the university. But, until, it is made a self-sustaining system, it is not going to pay in the long run. So, the idea of introducing earning opportunities for students within the confines of university can help a lot in realizing this dream. We can also find the passion of concerned Americans for the purpose of making education accessible to all classes of the society by the following words of Chitra in One Amazing Things “….I hear he wants to open a school for poor girls…..” ( Divakaruni, p.114)

Moreover, the way education has been affecting on our culture and producing an educated and liberal nation, is evident from the ‘One Amazing Thing.When the Grandma mocks a boy for having bad results in education, she is just depicting the typical mind set I which she has been born and what she has practiced throughout her life. But, the way the boy responds by not paying any heed at all to the criticism is really remarkable. According to Chitra Divakaruni “No, she makes lots of mistakes still, not half as good as your Caroline…..But, he was busy with college preparations…. (Divakaruni, p148)”. These lines are evident of the broadmindedness and the increasing tolerance capacity of the young generation. They are just focused on their educational aims and have nothing to do with the old type of distractions and mind sets.

However, many critics believe that liberty, mixing of races, cultural evolution while providing quality paid education are the pillars of success for a modern education system. Without these features, world cannot witness technological and other advancements. Chitra Divakaruni has mentioned the US college system as a reflection of all of the major traits of the American nation. At the moment, we have colleges that are more mixed in nature and where students are learning lessons of liberty (Greenberg, 2012). Our minority colleges are in bad condition and the teachers are suffering a lot in these colleges. The idea of making higher education free and introduce earning opportunities in the colleges can help in increasing the spectrum of quality education access. The idea of having a university per county, when coupled with this aim can help in producing a nation that is far more educated and independent.

Works Cited

Divakaruni, C. One Amazing Thing.

Greenberg, M. (2012, September 6). The Top Seven U.S. Schools Defending Your Student Liberties. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from In the Capital: http.

Huffingtonpost.com. (2011, November 11). Few Minority Teachers In Classrooms, Gap Attributed To Bias And Low Graduation Rates. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from Huffingtonpost.

Universitylanguage.com. (n.d.). Adjusting to American Culture While You Study at College. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from universitylanguage.