Collage Image with Text (Choice #2)

Meaning
Education has so much power in our lives and in society. So many people take it for granted, while others would literally die to learn. It’s used to control people – either by not allowing it for certain populations or by shaping the messages taught. When I read this quote, I am seeing the power and impact of education. This quote by Yeats also lends interpretation as to the purpose of education and the limitations of seeing it as filling a pail – a container with a finite amount of space that can overflow and just be wasted. Paolo Freire wrote about the concept of banking of education – where students are just containers (like financial banks, or pails in my connecting it to the quote) to be filled by teachers. In this instance there is typically no critical thinking that occurs (my simplistic interpretation of the idea from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed) and people can be easily manipulated. As I read the quote, Friere’s banking of people (filling a pail) came to my mind and the power of fire, symbolic to me of the power of education. It is so powerful, even if knowledge is just “banked” or poured into a person (the pail), that it can eventually lead to a spark in the mind of one student, one inquisitive mind, one person who realizes its true meaning and value. That spark in the right mind will lead to a fire that’s as vast as an ocean and a fire that cannot be extinguished even by that ocean. This spark to me is also a sign of critical thinking that is so needed to learn–to be able to take data and information and turn it into knowledge, and then to use that knowledge to think for yourself. Throughout history, this spark from education has set the world on fire and led to impacting change.

Processes
I used Pixabay.com to locate two public domain, non-attribution images [(1) bonfire; (2) bucket on the beach]. I then used GIMP 2 to create a collage of the two images using the Layers and Text features. I positioned the bucket image as the background, then resized the bonfire image and used the Mask feature (right click on layer, select Apply Layer Mask) to only show the fire. After manipulating the two images I added the quote using the Text tool, resized and centered it, positioned it in the water, and formatted it white. I resized the image and then exported it in a .jpg format. I wanted an image that was simple but meaningful and easy to interpret. I wanted it to also convey both the literal and metaphorical messages contained within the quote. Much like my writing process, I am analytical and try to get straight to the point.

Choices
This was somewhat of a challenging project in deciding which option to choose…then I came across the Yeats quote. I think we sometimes need a reminder of education’s capabilities–especially as I look at what’s happening in the world. In one way the images to choose were easy (pail, fire), but I thought the contrast of the two on an ocean-front beach was somewhat metaphorical. To me the image of the sand bucket on a beach brings to mind the idea of a child playing, how the lighting of a fire through education often starts with children, and how important it is to keep that fire kindled and not douse it out nor extinguish it. Fire can be easily smothered by water and by sand…but even a fire can burn on a beach if it is cared for and fed (even if you cannot see the wood). In the placement of the images together I was hoping to show how education can be limiting (by the small pail) or extinguished (the the imagery of the water and sand), or it can burn like the brightest bonfire on the beach at any time of the day.

Reference
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed, 30th Anniversary Ed. (online version). New York: Bloomsbury.