Question

Read the following excerpt from Eleanor Roosevelt's speech What Mean to the Nation kriow one place in the northern part of the state where camped for a while in the went to the sthool and talked to the teachers. They are using school books which have been passed down from one child to another. They havn practically no books outside of the textbookThe children in the district are so poor and some of them so pathetic that the struggle to live been so great you could not think much about what you fed the mind, but came away feeling that right there in one of the biggest and richest states the countrywe had a big area that needed books and needed libraries to help these schools in the edication of the children. andeven more, to help the whole community to learn to live through minds. We are doing a tremendous amount through the home economic colleges to help people to learn how to live in their homes, to better their standards of material livinggot to think in exactly the same way about helping them to live mentally and to attain better standardsand we can do only through the children. We can do ground work with the children: we must begin with them but we have got to do a tremendous amount with the older people.
What message is Roosevelt trying to convey?
A. Libraries are necessary because they improve people's overall quality of life
B. There needs to be greater effort put into teaching children how to read. C.Parents and children need to be educated about the value of books.
D. A higher priority is needed on learning rather than material concerns.

Answer 1

D. A higher priority is needed on learning rather than material concerns.

Explanation:

Eleanor Roosevelt here is arguing for a sort of education through which people can learn to think for themselves and live through their minds.

The first argument is for educating kids in school beyond what their textbooks teach them, this includes the inculcation of values of importance of books and building libraries.

The next insistence is on the working class who have no access to education and hence can only think about material concerns and remain in the situation they are in.

The argument is that adults as well as children need to be educated for education's sake and not just to get a job.