The Uses Of Liberal Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

The Uses Of Liberal Education - Essay Example Using logos, the author explains that poor people lack the power to negotiate their position and life condition. They are trapped by external and internal forces, which sometimes appear too overwhelming and thus insurmountable. The only weapon they can use to navigate through life is an equal force to match the forces they are encountering. This force for them is violence and gun culture. It is for this reason that many of them end up in prison. If they knew that there were other ways to negotiate and that they too could enjoy a voice in public matters, these people could come out of the vicious circle of poverty. Pathos has been effectively employed- mostly to highlight the plight of those who suffer from extremes of poverty. It is most prominent in the case of Niecie, the inmate at Bedford Hills who first gave the idea of the use of liberal education as a weapon for success. Viniece Walker was a twenty-year-old when she came to the prison and during her time there, her HIV had progressed significantly but she had defiantly pursued a college degree in psychology. She had been described as the best inmate because apart from her education, she was also fully engaged in offering counseling services to inmates. Ethos comes into action when the author tries to establish the moral grounds for his research. Why should the poor always remain poor? Why must the rich have the tools of negotiation while poor were completely ignorant of them? The author raises the question: why are poor people poor? And realizes that none of the people he interviewed mentioned lack of money or proper jobs. Some of them had a vague idea; others clearly felt that lack of education was the reason. The ethics of this argument lies in the inability of the poor to access the tools of negotiation that rich possessed.