Woolf and Swift: The Exposition and Impact of an Exclusionary Educational System

Abstract

Power dynamics have influenced the world of education for centuries. Swift elegantly sets up the impractical, costly and useless pursuit of knowledge that stem from elitist qualities in his satirical village of the Laputians and Lagado as a criticism of education in 1726. Woolf highlights the detrimental impacts of sexism, economic disadvantage, and how society interacts with both in ways that diminish human freedom in the pursuit of knowledge; she clarifies many ignored elitist qualities that kept knowledge available only to the few in 1920. Both Swift and Woolf explain that knowledge itself is not elite, therefore society should not make it available to a precious few. Swift highlights the dangers of the pursuit of knowledge being overtaken by the arrogant and advantaged, while Woolf lives in a world where she is toeing the line between being advantaged and discriminated against, and giving tools for how to reform society to value the pursuit of knowledge for all. Both write from a world of educational elitism, but give us tantalizing glimpses into a future where education is not limited to the elite.