An Education

Of what value is an education? Humanity has sought experience and knowledge since the dawn of consciousness, and for just as long has been casting doubt upon its own learning. In particular, the highly structured, conventionalized "educations" of modern civilization have inspired criticism and confusion; counter-arguments have often used mere tradition as a recourse, to little satisfaction. In An Education, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) listens to the tired defenses of her elite school's headmistress (Emma Thomson) - "There's also the civil service" she declares as a last resort. Unimpressed, Jenny informs the older woman that she'll have to do much better if someone asks for the point of all this experience in the future; an education which merely perpetuates itself (all those encouraging Jenny to complete her schooling have themselves become teachers) seems senseless to the young schoolgirl.

2 comments:

Stephen said...

MovieMan,

Sorry to intrude on this review but some of the comments on my site have disappeared and at the bottom of some reviews it gives you the wrong number (i.e. for Avatar it says there are 0 comments but there are five when you click on it - there were 6!)

Do you know why this could have happened? It's no big deal but it is confusing.

Thanks.

Joel Bocko said...

Sorry, I started to respond as if you were saying that was a problem with my blog - but now I see you're referring to yours. Thanks for letting me know. I wonder if it has to do with whatever account you are using (though that wouldn't explain the Avatar thing). I usually just post there with a screenname/URL. I do know Blogger's been acting wierdly latelyk, but I didn't think that was one of the ways in which it was doing so.