Isaac Asimov's "Profession" (1957): Contrasting Childhood Education with Adult Professional Selection
By
bkudria
Pure flour-power. Hearty enough to carry you through lunch.
Summary
This excerpt from Isaac Asimov's 1957 story "Profession" explores the contrast between childhood education and adult professional selection. It describes Reading Day as a natural, unpressured childhood milestone where children simply learn to read without the high-stakes pressure of later professional selection processes. The story uses this contrast to comment on educational systems and societal expectations, presenting a Western education allegory about how childhood learning differs from the competitive, high-stakes professional selection that comes later in life.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledA boy of eight takes many extraordinary things in stride. One day you can't read and the next day you can. That's just the way things are. Like the sun shining.
And then not so much depended upon it. There were no recruiters just ahead, waiting and jostling for the lists and scores on the coming Olympics.
A boy or girl who goes through the Reading Day is just someone who has ten more years of undifferentiated living upon Earth's crawling surface.
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