Macolm X's "A Homemade Education" and Kaufman's "Who's Educated? Who Knows?"
Both Malcolm X, in his essay "A Homemade Education," and Margo Kaufman, in her essay "Who's Educated? Who Knows?" look at what it means to be well educated. They take markedly different approaches, however. Malcolm X is very serious about how he noted his lack of knowledge and what he did about it, while Kaufman is often humorous as she looks at the issue.
Malcolm X's essay was written out of somewhat unique circumstances: he began his self, or "homemade" education, in prison. He comments,
"I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote...In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there... But now, trying to ...
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English and the second major language of our time, calculus." By that standard, we might find that many of the great minds of the past fifty years, including composers, artists and poets, were poorly educated. Kaufman also quotes comedian Jackie Mason's definition that an educated person "understands how to deal with people, with his job and his family." By that definition, Huck, the chauffeur in the movie Driving Miss Daisy, is very highly educated, as he had great skills with people of all kinds. However, Huck was illiterate. He could not read.
Both Simple's and Mason's definitions might leave Malcolm X out in the cold. Malcolm X saw deficits in his knowledge and worked hard to correct them, but he worked in a specific direction. He saw the need to be a more persuasive writer if he was going to meet his life's goals. He didn't go into the prison library and read everything he could about architecture and philosophy. He opened a dictionary and began enriching his vocabulary so ...
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"Macolm X's "A Homemade Education" and Kaufman's "Who's Educated? Who Knows?"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Macolm-Xs-Homemade-Education-Kaufmans-Whos/105127>
"Macolm X's "A Homemade Education" and Kaufman's "Who's Educated? Who Knows?"." Essayworld.com. October 27, 2015. Accessed March 28, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Macolm-Xs-Homemade-Education-Kaufmans-Whos/105127.
"Macolm X's "A Homemade Education" and Kaufman's "Who's Educated? Who Knows?"." Essayworld.com. October 27, 2015. Accessed March 28, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Macolm-Xs-Homemade-Education-Kaufmans-Whos/105127.
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