The course has made me understand that education is the process of transmitting all values, skills, and knowledge from one generation to another. It has made me appreciate the value of the generational transmission of information throughout the ages. Honestly what would happen to this generation if the knowledge, experience, and all other acquired information had not been transferred from the previous one?
This underscores the importance of education and its delivery through the ranks. It demonstrates the importance of the educated in the society as realms where the information I stored and passed to latter generations thus sustaining our shared history, education, the schemata, transfer of cultural and moral values, and improving life standards.
There is another important factor besides education that is complimentary of it. Education has to be delivered in a manner that those receiving it are able to ingest understand and interpret it in the way its delivery intended it. Thus there arises an issue of public and private language in which education and knowledge can effectively be transmitted.
By the phrase “Private language”, the author, Richard Rodriguez refers to the language that is used in the domestic or home setting. By this virtue, private language may therefore be synonymously referred to as the first or native language. On the other hand, “Public language” is used by Rodriguez to refer to the official language. As such, the language is used for learning, administrative and legal purposes, alongside social intercourse which may take place in public domains.
Rodrigues identifies the fact that unilateral understanding of one language shortchanges the individuals inhibited by private language. It denies them the ability to ingest education delivered in rather a public language. Education by virtue of being public property is usually delivered in a language that most people can understand.
Rodrigues demonstrates the fact the most people who are confined to private language miss out on the imperative knowledge being circulated in public languages. Limitation to a private language locks one out of any possibility of being bilingual. Being only able to speak to his fellows who spoke Los Gringos only inhibited his exposure to sound knowledge being delivered in public language.. Conversely, the magnitude of locking out a child from public language is to a great extent, likely to impede a child’s academic progress. This is especially the case in a polyglot society. A polyglot society must need a public language for learning purposes to ensure uniformity and to facilitate learning at one end.
Therefore this course has enabled me to understand no only the importance of knowledge but its delivery too. Going by the experiences of Rodriguez, myself and the dynamics and reality of sociolinguistics, it remains totally factual that limiting a child to private language alone places the same child at a disadvantage in accessing knowledge.
In conclusion, the course has made me appreciate education and the institution that passes it over the ranks. Education is an institution that is tranfered over the ranks. This has ensured its immortality and has created a need for generatonal responsibilities that ensure that knowledge is in constant transmission. Its delivery is as impornatnt as its transmission. Largely transmitted through public knowledge it requires the audience to be conversant with the public knowledge.