What is a real education?
Questions after questions kept flashing in my mind as I read one of Bernard Shaw’s famous plays “Pygmalion”. What does it mean by real education? Does beauty reflect virtue? What is the importance of one’s appearance and how does it change someone’s life?
Through the main character, Eliza Doolittle, I noticed that the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. Eliza manages to fool the society about her “real” identity and has successfully made others think that she is a princess from the way she dressed and the proper way of speaking. Is this the education that she needs in order to make her feel accepted by the so-called noble society? Is this the real education that she is talking about?
To me Eliza is a smart girl. She knows what she wants in her life. Eliza, despite her lacking of education, has learnt that external changes are never enough to make her an educated lady. She realizes that the real education that she has ever received is through Colonel Pickerings where his thoughtful treatment towards Eliza that teaches her to respect herself, compared to Professor Higgins who only manages to teach her pronunciations.
Having to portray yourself as educated does not necessarily need you to change physically. What are more important beyond that are the changes within you. You may have the highest degree in education and yet ended up behaving like Professor Higgins who is boorish and a careless bully. For me the most important criteria of a real educated person are how you implement the education that you have received and make full use of them in making you a better person.
Through the main character, Eliza Doolittle, I noticed that the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. Eliza manages to fool the society about her “real” identity and has successfully made others think that she is a princess from the way she dressed and the proper way of speaking. Is this the education that she needs in order to make her feel accepted by the so-called noble society? Is this the real education that she is talking about?
To me Eliza is a smart girl. She knows what she wants in her life. Eliza, despite her lacking of education, has learnt that external changes are never enough to make her an educated lady. She realizes that the real education that she has ever received is through Colonel Pickerings where his thoughtful treatment towards Eliza that teaches her to respect herself, compared to Professor Higgins who only manages to teach her pronunciations.
Having to portray yourself as educated does not necessarily need you to change physically. What are more important beyond that are the changes within you. You may have the highest degree in education and yet ended up behaving like Professor Higgins who is boorish and a careless bully. For me the most important criteria of a real educated person are how you implement the education that you have received and make full use of them in making you a better person.
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