Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American poet, essayist, unitarian pastor, theologist, and philosopher. During his life, he left a significant legacy of various works in literature, philosophy, and theology. He was ahead of the time in fighting for the rights of African Americans and freedom from their enslavement, as well as for women’s rights. His cultural contribution to American culture indeed cannot be overestimated.
His father was a unitarian minister who settled their family in a Massachusetts town called Concord, where Emerson lived all his life. After his father’s death, even though their family was poor, he could go to Harvard at fourteen. After graduation, he opened his school for girls and started working as a pastor in Boston’s Unitarian church, like his father. Unitarianism is an antitrinitarian movement in the protestant church, which means that the followers of this movement reject the Trinity doctrine. During his preaching activity, Emerson wrote many sermons and served as a liberal pastor in the New England Unitarian church. After leaving pastoral work, he made a living by lecturing for the whole second half of his life and became famous outside the USA after the 1850s. Rohmann (1999) states that “in his many lectures, he addresses a wide range of often controversial topics, including self-reliance and individualism, the abolition of slavery, etc.” (p. 114). His first book and a famous essay called Nature became a manifest of a religious and philosophical movement called transcendentalism. Emerson was a feminist who argued against slavery and praised freedom.
In the 1860s, he often pronounced a speech for graduates called On Education. Emerson claims that respect for the students’ individuality is the secret component of a successful educational system and that every student has unique characteristics that need to be taken into account while teaching. He also states that every genius has to be trained, and every talent needs practice. Another point that Emerson claims in this work is that teachers are often more concentrated on discipline and silence, making studying boring. Many of his thoughts and beliefs are still relevant today.
Likewise, Jonathan Kozol’s works mainly focus on educational problems in the United States. During his life, he wrote more than fifteen books, mainly about the educational system. He speaks against an obsolete No Child Left Behind system that was accepted in 1965. Kozol’s main point is that every child is unique and needs an individual approach. That is one of the points of contact between these two cultural figures. For most of his life, Kozol has fought for equality in Education for every child. Kozol also advocated the importance of literacy and its influence on conscious life.
Many educational problems remain, and some of them worsen with time. The schools where white children study tend to receive more money from the governmental structures than low-income schools. Many issues of modern schools were the problems Kozol talked about for decades. Inequality in school funding is an old question in the American educational system. America failed to listen to Kozol’s wisdom, unfortunately, its educational system has not changed in many aspects for years. The United States will feel the effects of its inability and unwillingness to change.
Emerson and Kozol both fought for equality in Education during their lives. While Kozol concentrates more on systematic failures and issues, Emerson is concerned about children’s identities and teachers’ attitudes toward them. They understood the importance of equal rights for every resident to be educated. However, Emerson worried about schools that are open to everyone because Education would be involuntary. Despite differences in their views, it is hard to overestimate their investment in Education in the United States.
References
Rohmann, C. (1999). A world of ideas: a dictionary of important theories, concepts, beliefs, and thinkers. Ballantine Books.