Education, Class, Experience and Identity in The Diamond Age
I’m about half-way through my re-read of The Diamond Age now and have been reminded how much I enjoyed this book and how thought provoking the story is. Now that I have a toddler pre-schooler in our house who is looking at doing prep next year, my thoughts turn to education more frequently and with a certain amount of worry about Sol’s future and the kind of person he will be. How much will our choice of school influence him? We’ve been coming across a few schools which Steph describes as peer insurance. ie You’re not paying for an advanced curriculum or better resources but it seems you’re just forking out cash to ensure that your child grows up with a certain class or group of children. Some of the more radical Protestant Christian schools seem to work along these lines. And there seems to be an aspect of this to all of the mainstream private schools as well.
In The Diamond Age, we see how Nell the main protagonist is transformed through her exposure to The Primer (an advanced electronic educational device that has fallen into her hands). She moves from her neglected and often abusive home to better accommodation and through her education (and with a little financial help from a benefactor) is able to access the upper class of her society.
Yet Stephenson through comparing her with two other girls makes the narrative unfold in such a way that I have to really question who Nell is? Is she a product of the book? Is there a part of her which exists independently of all the class and education she has accessed? I think what the story brings out is that there is something which can’t be manufactured that creates our identity from the experiences and relationships we have.
What we find as the book unfolds is that while Nell makes good use of all the culture and class the book makes accessible to her, it is her relationships that truly form her. At the core of the events in her life are the choices she makes and these in turn are formed by those with whom she has come into contact both good and bad. What makes Nell’s character have more depth than some of the other girls is her exposure to and awareness of violence and disadvantage.
Getting back to my thoughts on education and schools and I’m still very challenged by this idea of peer insurance. I really don’t want Sol to be ignorant of how life works and how our society works, I want him to have compassion and understanding of everyone and their place in society. At the same time, I see the need for him to learn in a safe environment where he is not worried about being teased or bullied to the point that it overshadows his experience of learning.
