Foster Wallace's theory about education presented in his commencement speech "This is Water" divulges the truest value of education and what it can develop for people. He reveals how the actual value of an education has nearly nothing to do with knowledge and academics rather the awareness of what is around us. This theory mostly focuses on the idea of emotional intelligence (EQ) and how an education which can make you more conscious would be more valuable as it can increase your empathy and EQ. The New York Times article "For Better Social Skills, Recommend a Little Chekhov" supports this as it frames results from a research study disclosing how literary fiction may be more beneficial and improve your EQ rather than popular fiction. One of the literary authors used in the research was Alice Munro, she and many other literary fiction authors managed to improve human capabilities in identifying emotion and many other things in a number of tests. This implied that some social skills were developed like empathy, improving their EQ.
Literary fiction is defined as "symbolic or thematic fiction that critics consider to have "literary merit" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction ). Munro encompasses this as she writes stories revolving around human experience while embracing underlining symbols and themes throughout. These themes and symbols communicate larger concepts about human behaviour, specifically, human relationships and interactions. Her writing allows for the readers to immerse them into the situation of the character and understand experiences that someone may never encounter. This is due to her writing style as well as the plot and character choices she makes.
Humans can learn emotional intelligence from interaction with other people and experiences that they have in their life or other people's lives around them. Due to Munro's content, themes and symbols, she allows people an insight on new experiences and circumstances that they may have never considered or experienced previously. This insight provides the audience with a new found awareness of certain things which can improve their empathy and may prepare them for future situations or help understand current and past ones. She embeds a variety of themes and symbols which force the reader to analyse the moments featured in the story and make inquires which slowly establish an awareness that was absent before.
This sort of literature is what can expand a person's mind emotionally which will extend socially. For Munro's work to be included in the schooling system provides students with a source of study which will extend and push their language and analyzation skills while making them more aware socially. It incorporates the academic aspect which a lot of schools and systems involve while subjecting young people to content which will make them grow as a person. Fulfilling the "valuable" education in which Wallace discusses due to its multiple uses which can allow a person to grow emotionally.
