Importance of Education

Questions on Primary Education

1. Why is it important that kids should receive an education in their lives? 
2. Should school districts offer more before and after school programs to help their kids?
3. How important is it for schools to accommodate students with disabilities?
4. What are some programs that can help students with learning disabilities?
5. Is a great education the key to success?
6. How does an education shape an individual?
7. What are the benefits of receiving an education?
8. Should parents have more say in their children's school curriculum?
9. Should individual schools and teachers have more impact in making decisions about the classes and topics covered during the school year (instead of all of the state requirements)?
10. Are there major differences between public and private schools?

Relationship between Friendswood and The Perils of Indifference

For the past two to three months, I have been discussing Rene Steinke's Friendswood.  There are many important major themes that Steinke brought into the story.  The themes included diversity, economic discrimination, grief, role of government, morality, etc.  Each of these themes apply to different characters throughout Friendswood.  One of the biggest incidents that occurs in the story is the bombing in Banes Field.  The bomb was set off by the protagonist Lee Knowles.  This bomb was meant to wipe "out the spine of the bulldozer" (Steinke 358). I couldn't believe it at first why she would do such a horrible thing.  However, Lee sett off the bomb to protect residents of Banes Field and Friendswood.  The antagonist, Avery Taft, was only concerned about making money on building houses on Banes Field's contaminated soil.  From my point of view, I think this was almost like a division between the wealthy and middle-class people in Friendswood.  Anyone who favored Taft's decisions was considered normal and people who opposed like Lee were considered insane.

There is another story that relates to Friendswood with themes of fighting for one's belief and categories of protagonist, antagonist, and witnesses.  This story is called The Peril of Indifference by Elie Wiesel.  In this story, Wiesel explains the theme of indifference amongst different groups of people during the Holocaust in WWII.  He stated how "indifference is always the benefits of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor - never his victim" (Wiesel 2).  One of the main points he brings in his story is the victims don't seem to get any benefits of being different.  Why are the antagonists being rewarded when they are considered indifferent from others? He writes "Indifference can be tempting...It is so much easier to look away from victims" (Wiesel 2).  Victims are people who are being harmed by others and are usually looked at as people just getting attention.  In these three categories, the killers and maybe witnesses should be the target for acts of crime.

Friendswood and The Perils of Indifference are similar for the reasons above.  They both share themes of victim blaming, morality, and even diversity.  Steinke and Wiesel incorporated that the protagonists are usually looked down upon from the rest of the characters throughout the story.  No one seems to care about their beliefs and things turn upside down once they listen to the other side.  People should understand that everyone has different beliefs.  However, that doesn't mean something is wrong with them.  Once people get to know each other, they will understand why making assumptions hurts individuals more than they think.