An Education


Of the much admired British film AN EDUCATION I am become one of the admirers. Carey Mulligan is a charismatic new talent (winsome, witty, smart), and the movie, directed by Lone Scherfig with a script by Nick Hornby, really has something to say about education and of what it ought to consist. In tandem with her formal education, the young woman at the center of the (true) story receives a hard lesson in “life” itself. That the two educations – in and out of school – are “of a piece” is significant, however much they interfere with each other. And one is reminded that such things as learning to dance, play an instrument, speak other languages and the like were once part of what made an “educated” person. There are class issues in this that should not be overlooked (this is England in 1961, after all) but as we debate our own educational priorities I hope we do not lose sight of good old-fashioned well-roundedness.

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One response to “An Education”

  1. […] routine, hard-nosed realism of the character. It is her place, her home, her way of being. Echoing what I thought at the time was the unspoken theme of An Education, the film in which Mulligan debuted internationally, she is committed to the […]