There I was sitting in the fourth row, last seat in the back. I didn’t really know what to expect nor did I know if I could handle or even begin to understand what our task was. I looked around the room and saw many different faces. I didn’t know whether they’re friendly or not but at that moment, I guess that’s where we can say, “where it all started”. We were already twenty minutes late since we ended up sitting in the wrong one. We made introductions and our professor gave out a paper with 2 different rather similar looking illustrations. One of them was a painting by Norman Rockwell titled, “The Problem We All Live With” and the other was a political cartoon of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos by Glenn McCoy.

Both the painting and the political cartoon showed different aspects of the same point. The painting had a little girl walking into school being discriminated for many good reasons that she resembled for, and the other showed a cartoon of a powerful woman walking into a school also being discriminated but for negative reasons that she resembled for. Both the publishers of the two pieces of illustrations had different perspectives that they wanted their viewers to know.

The painting showed this rather innocent looking girl named Ruby Bridges. She was an African American who, in the painting, was surrounded by bodyguards. When I first saw this painting, I wondered who this little girl was and what was she doing. I completely forgot who Ruby Bridges was, but my professor gave us a brief review about her. Apparently, Bridges was the first African American ever to desegregate an all-white elementary school. In the painting, Bridges was being surrounded by bodyguards to protect her from the many discrimination she had endured while attending this school. Many of the students didn’t like the fact that a colored person, from that day on had their rights to a better education. So, she became the odd man out. Many objects and hurtful words were thrown against her because of the people’s discontent that she was going to be with them and sitting with them in their classes. On the other hand, the political cartoon of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos shows us a multi-billionaire woman, who clearly lack the experience of being the Secretary of Education for schools throughout the country. McCoy published this piece to compare that the same situation of a billionaire lady was the same as an African American child who needed armed guards to get inside of her school.

After looking at the two pieces of illustrations, I could see where this was headed. We were probably going to compare them and give our opinions about it, which in fact I wouldn’t mind doing. “How did I feel about this comparison?” seemed like the appropriate question to start with. Honestly, having a multi-billionaire woman in charge of my education seems a bit worrisome. This woman had no degree of education nor any teaching experience. She never attended a public school or had her kids go to school in them. At that moment, I felt like my education was just going to be run like any other business out there. Our education is important, and it shouldn’t be treated as if it was a business.

Comparing it to a little girl who had to fight to get in to school with other white people made it look even worse. DeVos had her life set the day she was born. She didn’t have to worry about what to wear or what to eat, nor did she ever have to worry about getting her education and getting money. Bridges didn’t have it as easy as her, in fact they live two separate and completely different lives. Bridges spent most of her time at school alone because most of the adults threatened to pull their kids out of that school. DeVos didn’t have that problem, so I really didn’t agree with the fact that DeVos’s situation of not being allowed to come into schools was the same situation as Ruby Bridges.

Others might say otherwise and that both their situations are rather similar. There’s nothing wrong with that since we’re all allowed to express ourselves, I just felt that the painting of Ruby Bridges played a critical role in persuading me as a reader to take her side. Rockwell’s illustration showed the importance of education and the hardships one had to face to get their rights to a better education. I felt a lot more sympathy towards Ruby Bridges’ painting. It made me realize how lucky I am to even have my right to go to school with lots of different amazing people.  It got me to think more about how others could be going through this as well. Not everyone all over the world has the right to a better education and this painting really gives us a non-fiction feel that gets us to talk about topics such as this. The political cartoon of DeVos, looking at it is a bit satire. It’s so ironic that a multi-billionaire woman, who has no experience of going to a public school or even have a teaching degree, would become our nation’s Secretary of Education.

At the end of it all, it was clear on whose side I was on. I don’t know about everyone else in the class but to me, comparing Ruby Bridges to Betsy DeVos wasn’t appropriate nor was it clear to state that Betsy DeVos had the same situation as Ruby Bridges. As a student, I have strong feelings about this because the comparison of the two illustrations was very concerning. We’re all accustomed to interpreting different things and whether or not we have these different interpretations of something, we should still weigh in the facts before publishing it to the general public. Like what the political cartoon did, it caused a major uproar to its audience within the education system. Imagine what that would do to other relatable and concerning topics, especially in this time of ours.