President Essay, Research Paper

President?

The great country of America has fought very long and hard for the freedom that each citizen has today. With that freedom we have attained many amenities like the right to vote. If Jane Adams and Edith Kohl were running for president, they would have to show the country how their past experiences would be able to make the country a better place for everybody. Both Kohl and Adams have very different backgrounds, but would incorporate their knowledge, beliefs, and personalities concerning the major issues of today, like education, progression, and open-mindedness.

The Educational system is a major topic during elections. A candidate’s standpoint on education alone can determine whom the citizen will vote for. Jane Adams has a great background of education that she uses to help others. First of all Adams was the first generation of women to be educated at Rockford. This may not seem to be a lot but she proves that she has a strong personal belief of education when she says “there is the same difference between the learned and the unlearned as there is between the living and the dead” (pg.74). She is saying that being an educated person is just as important as being an alive person, and if you are uneducated then you are worth as much as a dead person. This quote goes hand in hand with the little girl who didn’t want to practice the piano. A little girl would practice for hours a day but could not get better than her mother, so her mom would stand over her and say “if I had all the opportunities that you had.” But the mother didn’t realize that she had talent not missed opportunities. Adams realizes that education is something that has to be worked for and basically say’s “You do not know what life means until all of the difficulties are removed.”(Pg.65) Finally Adams also shows an extreme care for educating when she becomes a missionary and preaches the teachings of the Presbyterian Church, after a childhood of not wanting to become a member. Kohl on the other hand dedicated her whole life to the educating of her community. She felt that it was her job to help better the community, which goes hand in hand with educating it. Kohl believed that the growth of the society would come when everyone takes upon their own weight, and personally contributes. (Pg.35) Though Kohl new nothing about running a newspaper she educated herself, therefor educating society and adding to its growth. Kohl also understood the importance of teaching children even under horrible conditions “The schoolhouse was much like any country school-but smaller and more cheaply built. It had long wooden benches and a rusty stove”(Pg.35) Kohl understood that education needed to be completed no matter what the conditions we know that she values that as an important part of her community. Both Adams and Kohl realize that education is the key to making goals become more and more reachable, or progression.

A second major issue in presidential races is the candidate’s views on progression. Without progression the country will not accomplish any thing while this person is in office, so why elect them in the first place. Adams completes a huge progression in her life, the creation of the Hull House. The idea of the Hull House was to “improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago.”(Pg.89) Adams did not stop at just the Hull house; she created a kindergarten in it to help the kids learn, and also to progress from the school life to the working life. Adams knows that she wants to help people progress, she talks about memories of President Lincoln, and how he dug channels through the world for which the American’s can flow. Adams to wants to be a channel digger in a sense, some one that will create a way for the rest of the people to follow. Kohl new that progression is a very important key to their survival “Slowly we were making friends, learning to find space restful and reassuring instead of intimidating? Imperceptibly we were putting down our first roots into that stubborn soil.”(Pg.27) Kohl is stating that before any more progressions are started they must fulfil and complete the one that is currently being pursued. She understands that life will be much easier if it is taken one step at a time, which is a very important thing to understand. One of the great progressions that Kohl helped achieve was “The seed shot out of the ground and the fields were green. The gardens grew like Jack’s beanstalk. The thick grass stood a foot high. And the dams were full of water?And Ammons was actually on the map.” Kohl’s understanding of this progression shows that she knows that progression is necessary to advance even father, and also to better the community. Adams and Kohl’s biggest progressions will come when they learn to be open-minded.

Open-mindedness is very important to a nation’s development and the success that the president will have. Adams is a not an open-minded person she will usually go into a situation with a strong belief or she will let a bad experience affect the rest of her life. Adams is a very prejudice person. Before the bullfight she goes in thinking that she is going to have a horrible time, but it turns out that she is not bothered by it. But because Adams was not bothered by it she hated it even more. Also Adams will hold grudges, “For the following weeks I went about London almost furtively, afraid to look down narrow streets and alleys lest they disclose this hideous human need and suffering.”(Pg.62) Adams narrow mindedness hampers her ability to further evolve intellectually and emotionally. This narrow mindedness could hamper very important decisions that she would have to make. At first Kohl was not open minded about anything that didn’t have to do with her community. Kohl soon learned to accept the differences because she realized that it would help her better her own community. “We had to do something that would bring relief from this horror. We went to the old medicine men-John Yellow Grass”(Pg.139) Kohl shows the ability to accept diversity, which will benefit the common good of the community.

Both Kohl and Adams have gone through many different situations and hardships in their life. Because of this each would bring a very different quality and aspect into the presidency. I believe that Adams, even though not open minded, would make decisions that I agreed with on issues like education and progression, which would directly benefit the community that I live in.