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3 Factors Shapes One’s Life: Social Environment, Education And Self- Concept
Nanyan Jiang
Prof. Teddy Chocos
English 102
6 October 2015
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As a saying goes: “Your character is going to becomes your destiny”. There
are three major factors that shape one’s life: the environment that person lives in, the
education that person gets, and the self-concept of that person. The influences shape
one’s life come from both the outer world and the inner self of the person. The society
provides an environment that the person’s character to gown; education help one’s to find
his or her own talent, then how to enhance those talents. The insight of one is how does
this person react to the two outer world influences: the environment and education. And
most of the time, both inner and outer world influences are interconnected. Any changes
of these three factors will lead to a different path of life.
A person’s character is build up by exploring and experiencing from the outside
world. Therefore the environment can shape our view of the world, and that cause
different people see and perceive things differently. According to “Freedom” by an
African-American writer Joyce M. Jarrett, at Jarrett’s first day of all-white city high
school, she suffered from bulling and discrimination, but she still cling to a tiny scrap of
hope of equality will comes to her automatically. However at the end of the class, she
raises her hand, excepted her teacher would notice her, she states: “Near the end of the
class, I mustered up enough courage to ask a question, so, nervously, I raised my hand.”
Jarrett’s raise her hand at class shows that she has the ambition to learn, even in the
conditional while she was being bullied. However the teacher ignored her request, which
destroyed her last hope on being treat equally. Jarrett the experiences of being
discrimination made Jarrett doubted and debunked her perception of freedom before. As
Jarrett’s words: “That painful, dehumanizing incident within itself did not provide any
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answers, though it signaled the beginning of my search.” The society made her changed
her perception freedom. For the question of what true freedom is, Jarrett gave her answer:
“Freedom is not a gift, but a right.”
Education provides a chance for talent to be shown and be enhanced. There is
no clear-cut distinction can be drawn between whether a person is talented or not.
Whether a person is talented or not is depends on the situation. So anyone can be
intelligence in some way. There is no test or measurement of talent. However a person’s
intelligence can only be shown when his or her talent been discover and enhance. What
education should do is to help on finding what one’s true talent is and help to enhance it.
Issac Asimov states on his article “What Is Intelligence, Anyway?” that his scored so
high on his intelligence test is simply because the people who wrote those test has the
similar “intellectual bents” that he has. Therefore those people who did not do well on
intelligence test do not mean they are not talented. In Asimov’s example, an auto-repair
man who cannot score well on intelligence test can do what the author cannot. In fact,
everyone has his or her own talent. Intelligence is varying from different people.
Everyone has his or her own talent, but some times the talent is hidden. And the true
purpose of education is to eliciting one’s own talent. According to Sydney.J Harris at
“What true education should do”, genuine education is to induce someone’s talent instead
of putting things into someone’s mind. Harris quoted from William Ernest Hocking: “is
the instruction of a man in what he has inside of him.”
In “What true education should do”, Harris gave an example of an uneducated
slave boy who understands geometry without being taught. Harris claims that the talent of
geometry that the boy has was not given to him through education. The boy was born
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with his talent, but he had never practice his geometry in real life, so his talent remains
hidden. So the purpose of education should not be stuffing of information, but to help
someone enhance his or her strength and talent.
However, as Harris believes, in many times our education system did not help us
on enhancing our talent. Harris gives another example of a college student to support his
point. The student said that he was too busy to study that he did not have time to learn
any thing he wants. The student has spent so much time on study material that the school
required; he did not have time to do his own resources. His talent was burying out by
those heavy school works. The genuine education should guide a person to a right path on
doing the best thing to them. Sherman Alexie tells a story on his essay “Superman And
Me” about even in a poor condition, his father tried everything he can to satisfied his
huger of reading. Following his father’s insistence of reading, Alexie learned to love
books. He claims that the only purpose of reading those books was to save his life.
Alexie’s father teaches him the importance of reading by his words and deeds. People are
not born with knowledge. People were born with his or her own talent. Genuine
education, as Harris states on “What True Education Should Do”: “the rules of reason.
The inner knowledge of what is proper for men to be and do, the ability to sift evidence
and come to conclusions that can generally be assented to by all open minds and warm
hearts.”(Harris)
The “open mind and warm heat” that Harris points out mean the most
important factor expect for environment and education is the person’s selfawareness, or self-concept. There is an example of how a person’s hunger of
knowledge guided him to be successful. "Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie
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describe how the author’s father, an Indian who earn minimum wage had impressed upon
him from childhood to love reading. The author Sherman Alexie tells that even in a poor
condition, his father tried everything he can to satisfied his huger of reading. Following
his father’s insistence of reading, Alexie learned to love books. He claims that the only
purpose of reading those books was to save his life. In Alexie’s story, his father’s passion
on books inspired Alexie, but reading is more like an interest than an obligation for him.
This kind of passion on reading is also an insight. Alexie did not discuses how reading
actually changes his life, but he certainly knows that reading is good for him.
Another example on how insight shapes one’s life is Malcolm X’s experience of
being self-educated, it is clear to see that Malcolm X has a perceptive insight on what is
good for him. According to an excerpt from Malcolm X’s autobiography: “A Homemade
Education”, Malcolm X claims that he was inspired to learn how to read by a person he
knows in the Charleston Person, Bimbi. Malcolm X envies Bimbi’s knowledge, he was
stimulated to learn how to read. “Bimbi has always taken charge of any conversation he
was in, and I had tried to emulate him.” When Malcolm X first started to read, he could
not understand must of the contact of a book. So he stated to read a dictionary to study
from the fundamental of English, and that was when he started to practice penmanship as
well. Malcolm X states: “Is was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary
along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony School.” Without
this great insight of how to learn by himself, Malcolm X’s would not had his success in
writing.
In a word, social environment, education and self- concept are the three
major factors that influence our life. These three factors are equally important
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because they are interconnected. With a healthy environment that encourage people to
be whom they want to be, a proper education system that helps people to enhance their
talent and a clear self-concept, that person‘s life will be more colorful and more abundant.
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Work Cited
Alexie, Sherman. “Superman and Me.” (1998)
Asimov, Isaac. “What Is Intelligence, Anyway?.”
Jarret, JoyceM. "Freedom."
Malcom X “A Homemade Education.”