Personal Narrative: My First Day at School Essay -- essays research p

My first day at school My first day at school was a new adventure for me. I had to wear a school uniform: a blue dress and handmade leather sandals. Having run around all but naked for the first eight years of my life, it was very exciting. At school we learnt about Australian culture and its social classes as well as social classes worldwide. Throughout my studies I learnt that Australia wasn't a classless society. The class to which a person belonged determined how they were treated and we learnt through two particular films:' Educating Rita' (Willy Russell, 1983) and 'My Fair Lady' (Bernard Shaw, 1964) that it is indeed possible to break the mould and change where you end up in life. Rita is a twenty-six year old hairdresser from Liverpool who wants an education. Not the sort of education that would get her a better job or higher wages, but an education that would give her more choices and freedom. Rita wants to be a different person and lead a different sort of lifestyle she has led previously. ?Educating Rita? describes the tests and alterations that the young hairdresser has to go through to develop from a person with very little education to someone who passes her exams with distinctions. Frank Bryant teaches comparative literature and it is his job to teach Rita. Frank has lost all enthusiasm for his job. He loathes most of his students, and the main purpose of the rows of classical literature in the bookshelves in his office is to hide the whiskey bottles. Rita is seen as a lower class citizen. She has very little education and describes a religious painting as ?pornography of its days?, she drops the end consonants of her words and swears often. As she?s walking down towards her house it?s raining and looks ve... ...hange in confidence. Just like Rita, she has developed a sense of worth and no longer endures all of the insults like she use to and this is easily seen when she exclaims , ?I won?t be passed over?I want a little kindness?.am not the dirt under you feet?I stand alone without you? In both of the films we are swayed to side with Rita and Eliza because they are battling against impossible odds by trying to attain education. We are led to disprove of Frank?s and Henry?s attitudes towards their students and social class because they have everything that most people dream of, yet they don?t seem as thankful. Both of these films are displaying a uniform message to its audience. Education, in another word, is emancipation. It is the liberation of a person from a member of a stereotypical society to an active agent who can choose and change where he or she ends up in life.