Such is life. Humans, Society, the person to the left and the person to the right; everybody is able to learn. From there, it should also be common knowledge that the more one learns, the more one knows, and the more they’re able to teach others; and nobody knew this more than James Baldwin.
Born in August of 1924 and living till late November of 1987 in the U.S., Baldwin began to build his legacy with his works of literature, such as Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) and Notes of a Native Son (1955). However, it was his dealings concerning his racial and sexual issues that made him and his stories, such as Giovanni’s Room (1956), so famously controversial. It was these controversies, these experiences that allowed Baldwin to learn and know all he could about the society around him in the first place; and the more he knew, the more he wanted to help and teach others.

In Baldwin’s A Talk to Teachers, he speaks about the processes of education, learning, and teaching. He states that, “education occurs within a social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of society.” What Baldwin is saying here is that people learn behind restraints; in a way, within social boundaries. But at the same time, the things being learned give the potential to see these boundaries for what they really are: Passable.

He goes on to say that, “as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.” Baldwin is explaining how once a person is enlightened about the boundaries, they begin to examine them, question them, pick at them, until those boundaries finally start to tear apart and allow the person to freely make decisions without any restraint whatsoever.

A person able to complete this task that Baldwin has explained would allow them to now, as he said it, “ask questions of the universe and learn to live with those questions,” which “is the way they achieve their own identity.” They could now think for themselves, make their own decisions, and gain more of that common knowledge and sense that defines them as whom they really are; adding more to what they’ve learned, what they know, and what they might like to pass on and teach, just as James Baldwin did.