Education

In ‘between the world and me’, Coates talks about how education effected his life and discusses his grievances with the U.S. school system. On page 26 he questions the morality and reason of the school system by asking, “why, precisely, was I sitting in this classroom?”(26). He is sitting in that classroom because the school had forced him to be there. He then goes on to say “...the schools were not concerned with curiosity, they were concerned with compliance”(26). Coates is saying that he believes that the school systems today are not concerned with the learning of students. They only care that students obey the commands of teachers. With this system of learning in place, how are people supposed to question the world around them when children are being taught to follow the orders of the authority figures? Those who question or fail to comply to the school system are “...suspended and sent back to those same streets...those who failed in schools justified their destruction on the streets”(33). The schools are a vicious cycle that keeps people in low income neighborhoods. According to the U.S. department of education, more than 40% of low income schools don’t get a fair share of state and local funds (Department of edu). This info shows why coates feels the way he does about schools. From this information, we can see that the people with the lowest income receive the lowest education. Without a higher education, how are people in poverty expected to leave low income? This is the issue Coates seems to be addressing in this quote.