Creating an educational system that serves its core purposes and addresses the needs of its stakeholders, particularly learners, educators, and community members, accordingly is a challenging task. In their essays “The Purpose of Education” and “Why I Write,” Martin Luther King, Jr., and George Orwell discuss the concept of learning and distill its core components. Though Orwell and MLK approach the process of education from slightly different perspectives, both introduce ethics, focus on intelligence, and build perseverance as the essential elements of the educational system.
The significance of ethics as the core component of any education system is emphasized immediately, both in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay and Orwell’s one. Namely, Orwell mentions “public-spirited” motives, whereas King insists on education having to teach one to “discern the true from the false” (Orwell, 1946, p. 7; King, 1947, para. 3). Similarly, the importance of training learners to develop intelligence is outlined as a critical component of education in both Orwell’s and King’s essays. Specifically, MLK insists on the value of “quick, resolute and effective thinking,” whereas Orwell introduces the concept of “purpose,” specifically, “political purpose,” into his writing, implying that education must have a meaning (King, 1947, para. 3; Orwell, 1946, p. 4). Finally, promoting perseverance as the path to enhancing learners’ motivation is rendered as a crucial component of the education system: “Intelligence plus character”; “I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly” (King, 1947, para. 6; Orwell, 1946, p. 7). Thus, both essays contribute to a thorough understanding of the goals that the education system must pursue.
Despite pursuing different goals in their essays, MLK and Orwell introduce similar ideas of building intelligence and encouraging perseverance in, as well as promoting ethics to, learners as the main stakeholders. The essays introduce an ethics-driven perspective that allows viewing education as a means to a more important end. Specifically, Orwell and MLK represent education as the platform for developing skills that will allow one to make essential social changes. Overall, both authors share the concept of inspiration-based learning as the method of increasing learners’ motivation.
References
King, M. L., Jr. (1947). The purpose of education. The King Institute. Web.
Orwell, G. (1946). Why I write. Colloquy Downeast. Web.