English Literature on Educating Rita - Essay Example

of the of the Concerned 17 May Educating RitaTask 2- Frank’s Diary First Diary Entry Meeting Rita was indeed a shocking and pleasant experience at one and the same time. The very first day, her attitude and mannerisms unsettled me like somebody has shabbily wacked my head with a full folded edition of the Sun. Before meeting Rita my professional life was like a dilapidated and abandoned fishing boat sailing to nowhere, simply subject to the whims and fancies of the unpredictable currents. Though in my young days I believed that the system will never be able to tame me and deprive me of my essential originality and commonsense, yet, things turned out quiet to the contrary. The system failed to tame me. However, it certainly turned me into a failed poet, a frustrated teacher and an unreliable husband, carrying on with life from one drink to the next. In that context, the entering of Rita in the scheme of things was like the gushing in of a waft of fresh air into a room that had been sealed and locked for centuries. Rita reminds me of something that had been since ages considered being patently British and which the current education system badly needs- ‘COMMONSENSE’! The system is still carrying on with the moth eaten and anachronistic canons and way of doing things set in concrete by the prophets of the yore. In Rita I found the flickering remnants of the essential British spirit of challenging the old norms, the raw courage of our hearty and robust, seafaring and blasphemous ancestors. Her referring to ‘assonance’ as “getting the rhyme wrong”, her irreverent aversion for Forster, her street smart solution to the staging problems marring Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, her delight at connecting with the essentially universal appeal and humanness of Macbeth, her sense of stifling abhorrence for and a congenital allegiance to the British working class culture, her innocent fascination with Rubyfruit Jungle, her differences with Denny, her uninformed feminism, her inferiority infested sense of inability to fit in with my so called cultured guests and above all her deep ingrained belief in her ability to become something more and better than what she is……….., raw, yes, common, yes, unrefined, yes, unsophisticated, yes, upstart, yes, but, certainly not devoid of ingenuity, gumption and hope. The system needs more Ritas. Second Dairy Entry Rita fascinates me…, or is it something else. My feelings towards Rita are getting confused, jumbled up and rather intense with each passing day. I dejectedly wait for her in my office, and the minute she enters the room, my heart starts beating with the intensity of a herd of buffalos thundering across some plane. Am I in love with her or is it just an attraction between the opposites? By Jove…, I am confused like some bleeding idiot! What do I want from her? What do I intend her to do? Why do I have a feeling of intense guilt, lurking behind my mind? When I first met Rita, she wanted to get cultured…, get cultured as the world understands culture. The bumbling idiot simply had no idea of her innate originality, appeal and charm. Then I decided to educate her so as to give her a voice, not to make her somebody, but to make her realize that she was already somebody. I wanted to teach her a way of expressing herself that the world could understand, a way of conveying ideas that could make people appreciate and understand her effortless humour and wit. I wanted her to be a woman in her own right. I wanted her to be able to make choices for herself. I think I have succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. Rita is now moving in the world with confidence and poise. She is meeting people and making friends. She has changed her job, though without telling me. She has moved into a flat with a flat mate. And, yes, I think boys find her attractive. They want to be with her. Why this makes me angry and drink profusely. Did I want her to make choices so as to eventually be her inevitable choice? IS IT SO? NO, NO, NO… I am definitely not one other bleeding control freak… or am I? … I simply do not know… Third Diary Entry It’s been a long time since Rita gave me a haircut. If I do not go for the other, the Aussies will definitely mistake me for a banished, British Yahoo! Wish Rita were here with me at this beach, sitting by my side…… simply looking at the sun setting behind the waves….. Everything comes to pass… Yes, everything comes to pass. I think it’s me who is responsible for inflicting this pain on me. I am a bleeding old moron! Am I happier now when Rita considers herself educated or was I happier when she considered herself uneducated… worshipping and adoring me as some paragon of culture and sophistication. C’MON FRANK, STOP THINKING LIKE A SULKING TEENAGER!!! I miss Rita! What must Rita be doing now? Perhaps she went to France with Tiger and his group? Perhaps she has enrolled in the University? … or perhaps she has decided to make up with Denny and have a baby? No, she will never be the same old Rita again. I do not want her to be so. Her choices may be new… Her choices may be the old ones… But, she will never be the same Rita again, because this time it is she who will be making those choices. I can respect that. ATTA BOY… THAT’S LIKE AN OLD BOY!!! Perhaps, having an inspiration and owning an inspiration are two different things. Rita was my inspiration. Rita is my inspiration… the muse that makes me write poems, which may perhaps one day secure some small space in the collection which people call literature. Where is the pen that Rita gifted me? ….. where is it… have I lost…by Jove…yes, here it is. Need to write a letter to Rita. I know people will call it a poem. Task 1- Speech Respected ladies and gentleman, I am Rita and I belong to a working class family. Perhaps the British Government never understood what it means to have a working class background. It means many things. Above all, it means a lack of access to early education or an access to a schooling system that intends to put you in your place. That denies you culture and sophistication. That holds your finger and leads you to the factory doors and before you acquire the maturity to understand anything, the doors to opportunity are closed to you. In that context, the provision for adult education in Britain is the very backbone of working class emancipation. The cause of adult education in Britain should not be based on some emotional appeal, but should rather derive sustenance and support by analyzing it in a historical perspective. That is what I am going to do today. The British working class was the one fundamental reason behind the English victory over the Axis Powers in the II World War. It was indeed the high time when the British government recognized the need to do something to ameliorate the status of working classes. The Beveridge Report of 1942 laid down the foundations of the welfare system in Britain. Yet, the irony of the matter was that though the this Report recognized ignorance amongst the primary reasons behind the sorry plight of the British working classes, it failed to make any concrete provisions for the cause of the adult education in Britain, the only ray of hope for the people sidelined by the society (Saxton, 1942). The founder of economic thought in Britain, the influential Classist Adam Smith declared the labour to be a commodity like any other commodity (Rutherford, 2007). He told the governments to let the market forces decide the plight of labour and suggested that everything will get all right in the long run (Rutherford, 2007). The obvious premise that could be drawn from this theory was that the economic theory allowed no scope for extending education to adults interested in bettering their lot. Not to mention that Keynes aptly ridiculed this commoditization of the working class by stating that “In the long run we all are dead” (Rutherford, 2007). The good thing about British Keynesianism was that it nudged the governments to intervene so as to better the lot of the British working class. However, this impetus to intervention was more in the context of economic and fiscal decision making and to a great extent ignored the cause of education and especially the adult education. The cause of the working class is closely linked to the provisions and facilities for adult education and the governments and policy makers over the years have not done much to promote it. Thatcherism gave a decisive blow in this context by opting for massive cuts in the government spending on social welfare and that included spending on education and especially adult education (Vinen, 2010). It is my firm conviction that the adults in Britain dedicated to and aspiring for education will no more allow this historical injustice to continue uninhabited. It is good to realize that the present coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats has learned from the follies of the past and has decided to rebuild and reinvent the welfare system in Britain. It is also sad to say that at present UK is going through tough times with an augmenting inflation and soaring unemployment rate. The stated policy of the coalition government is to reinvent the welfare system so as to allow the unemployed people to have access to the opportunities for skill enhancement and further education so as to better their chances of getting employed. It goes without saying that such propitious intentions of the Coalition could not afford to ignore the plight of adult education in Britain. Any cuts in the spending on adult education will not only worsen the recession in the short run, but will severely hit the future of the English working class in a unified Europe. It is not difficult to understand that better skilled and educated individuals do always have a higher chance of getting profitably employed as compared to those who are less skilled and less educated. So I emphatically plead on behalf of the British working class to the current Coalition government to make better budgetary allocations for the adult education in Britain and to support the cause with effective planning and policy making. Thank you. Reference List Rutherford, Donald 2007, Biographical Dictionary of British Economists, Thoemmes Continuum , London. Saxton, Clive C 1943, Beveridge Report Criticized, George G Harrap & Co, London. Vinen, Richard 2010, Thatcher’s Britain, Pocket Books, London. Read More