Education: The Idea of a University
             In the section of education I looked at two different essays. The works I have chosen to analyze and discuss are "What Does a Woman Need to Know", by Adrienne Rich, and also "Keeping Close to Home", written by Bell Hooks'. In the essays the authors are both trying to persuade you into believing a particular belief they have on education. Education is something that we all acquire throughout our lives, however in a lot of cases we fail to understand the importance of it all.
             In Bell Hooks essay her whole argument is stated in the title "Keeping Close to Home". In her wide-ranging experiences with education the major point she tries to get across to her audience is that some of the most important things you learn in life are found in your past. She grew as a southern girl in a working class background, who has not experienced all there was to see in the world of education. She made a major decision in her life to move away from her hometown life in Kentucky and attend Stanford University. While attending Stanford she learned a lot about class differences, and how hard it is for an underprivileged black person to attend a university predominately filled with students of privileged backgrounds. She was well aware while attending Stanford her class realities separated her from fellow students, however she states in her essay "I did not intend to forget my class background or alter my class allegiance" (Hooks 95). She used her background as some!
             thing to fall back on when problems arise.
             I believe that the central idea is stated when she writes. "Maintaining connections with family and community across class boundaries demands more than just summary recall of where one's roots are, where one comes from. It requires knowing, naming, and being ever-mindful of those aspects of one's past that have enabled and do enable one's self-dev
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