Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

Where do I begin? That’s a good question, and one worth answering after reading the Education Of Henry Adams. I was both stunned and delighted to find that there are many parallels between myself and the young Adams. We both realize that education, knowledge, learning, or whatever you would like to call it means nothing without desire. We both live in times where it seems students are mass produced to try and fit with the changing ideologies of efficiency and continuity. And we both hold a deep respect for women, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that they are still full of…it.
Something I read in this essay that hooked me like a fish, came when Adams began to distinguish himself form the average student. Henry Adams writes “ He regarded himself as the only person for whom his education had value, and he wanted the whole of it.” I could feel something inside bubbling to the surface as soon as I read that passage. It was some connection I was making. I was connecting two different worlds and two different times by the fact that I felt the very same way as Henry Adams describes himself during his Harvard years. Henry Adams uses the word “Self-possessed” He writes rather eloquently what we would today just as soon say “DUH”
Something else I would like to mention from the Harvard days of young Adams. This springs back to what I said earlier about students being mast produced. If we consider the time gap we find that we are experiencing very nearly the same situation as young Adams is living through. Think about it…Most of us were born in the Twentieth century, have seen the Twenty first century, and are continually lost in the struggle to keep up with new technologies and systems that born, and digitally born constantly. There is a great desire for well greased cogs to operate these new systems and thus the emphasis on learning is placed on complacency rather than on knowledge.
I really don’t want to talk about women, but I must. Today’s woman is a very different creature than today’s man. Women have achieved the recognition of their power, as opposed to the pursuit of that recognition during the life of Henry Adams. Today’s woman is an individual staying afloat by her own will and power and not by that of any other man…or woman! Today’s woman doesn’t like her hand held, and will expose you to the very core if you should cross her. Of course this only applies to my experiences with American women in a limited time frame of twenty two years.
Also, it wouldn’t kill you to respond to this and give me reasons why any of this is B.S.