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James Baldwin - Talk to Teachers

Prompt

Read James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers”, then write a 1-page response to Baldwin’s essay

Questions

  1. What is Baldwin’s purpose in writing this essay?
  2. Where do I believe that Baldwin gets it right? Are there places where I disagree and why?
  3. What similarities do you see in the world to which Baldwin is writing and the one that we live in today?
  4. How does Baldwin’s assessment of education impact the way you think about your own education?

Response

In “A Talk to Teachers,” Baldwin emphasizes the importance of education and how it affects a persons perception and interpretation of their surroundings. He provides examples of racial discrimination during the time of publication and uses this as evidence to not only prove how important education is, but also ways to approach our duties to change society for the better.

In the second paragraph, Baldwins says the purpose of education is to “create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself”. He says the way we question the world around us will let us achieve our own identity, but society expects citizens to simply obey the rules of society. This is something I would completely agree with - we cannot simply take in and consume information blindly, but we should question and think about the information we are being told. I would disagree with Baldwin’s claims about America’s origin and how we claimed that it wasn’t found by a band of heroes, but rather the founders were comprised of the poor, hungry, and convicts.

As for similarities I see in the world in which Baldwin is writing and the one we live today, it would be the fundamental purpose of education. Within the context of Baldwin’s time of publication, people of color were facing extreme discrimination based off of their race, and the act of not questioning would have only reinforced that rule in society. Even today, that statement still applies. Social media has created a platform where people are simply fed information and are told to believe it, making it easy to remove the part where we question the world around us. If we do question the information society feeds to us, we are then subject to cancel culture and told to shut up.

Baldwin’s assessment of education has reinforced my understanding of education and educators. Educators are here to provide us with information and to create a healthy environment that allows people to question the information we learn. This way, people can really be informed and educated, and when change is necessary, people are able to make wise decisions.