November 29..back to reality

When I think about my education I think about elementary school. In elementary school I had trouble focusing on my work and I always had to have my mom help me with my homework. I have faced obstacles in learning, reading, and writing. I had trouble focusing in my classes, I hated to read, and the teachers where always unhappy with my writing either it was too big or too small. My obstacles were in the classroom I could never focus on the teacher and what they wanted me to do. My teachers never tried to help me focus on my work I don’t think they even noticed I wasn’t paying any attention. One thing that bothers me the most is how my mother helped me with my homework instead of trying to help me learn or notifying my teachers that I was not getting what they were teaching. In middle school I overcame these obstacles I noticed my weaknesses. I didn’t want to fall behind my class so I started to study really hard and no longer asked my mom or other family members to help me do my homework. When I think about Douglas it takes me back to when I was making that transition from elementary school to middle school. How hard I pushed myself to do my best and the struggle I faced with not really knowing how to do things on my own. I feel like I did myself a favor and I did the right thing. I wish I would have changed my ways sooner than middle school and I wouldn’t have had such a hard time. I can compare my achievements to Jordan’s because we both had to kick it in the high gear to keep up with the rest of our class but I didn’t have to study like she did. I don’t really know if this relates good or not but in Kozals book “Savage Inequalities”, he talks about how schools are unequal and when I transferred from my elementary school to my middle school the kids from savannah called us them because we were known as the rich kids, but we weren’t rich at all.

How i learned to read and write

Fredrick Douglass’s “How I learned to Read and Write”, is taken from his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In this piece Douglass shares how his master’s mistress taught him his a, b, c, and to spell small words, but she was caught. It was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write. If Douglass were to learn to read he could find out that he could be free. Soon after Douglass moved in with the Auld’s Mrs. Auld insisted she teach him his a,b,c, and then she taught him to spell small words. Mr. Auld stopped the lessons immediately and Douglass was cut off. I think that Douglass wanted to read because of this. He wanted to learn so he could take an ell out of an inch. I have always been able to learn and because of school I have never been cut off as Douglass was. This is what encouraged Douglass to find other ways to learn how to read. Douglass would talk to the white boys he met on the street and turned them in to his teachers. I didn’t care so much about reading but it was always available to me. If I was cut off from learning like Douglass was I would have been driven to teach myself like Douglass did. Douglas and I are similar in a way because we both know how to read and write. I am inspired by Douglass because he was a slave and found ways to teach himself to read and write with just an inch.

Before this course I anticipated writing a good amount of essays and reading books. I really didn’t know what to expect, accept that I had to be ready because high school was over. At the time I was fresh out of high school and I was confident that I would do well in college. Now that I am in the course and summer has passed I am not doing as well as I wanted. I feel like I have forgotten how to write a good essay. I also hoped I would improve as the weeks have gone by. I have improved in some ways but not in the way I would have liked. I have trouble finding words and brainstorming. It’s like I’m not really ready for college. This course has tested me. I have to do my work and show up to all classes or fail. I think that I have improved on my journaling. At this point I can just sit down and journal, but the first couple of journals I had a lot of trouble with. I couldn’t sit and just answer a question and have a 250 word response. I know that once this course is over I will be able to see my improvement and be happy.

task three

I’m thinking about using Bakers essay “School vs. Sanctuary”, and Botstein’s essay “Let Teen-Agers Try Adulthood”. In Bakers essay I am focusing on how children learn from parents, school, and television. How what the children see when their younger stick with them as they grow. Some children will act negatively and will become unbearable to teachers, family, parents, and eventually society.  This is where I’m connecting Botstein’s essay. How adults don’t like teens and think they are uncontrollable when really we created them. They are spitting images of us. They watch us, family, the people on television and gather information and ideas that shape them in to the people we become. We can control what our children see and do. I think that parents don’t spend enough quality time with their children and don’t have enough communication. I see it as selfish and irresponsible for a parent to not care about what their child is doing when they’re not around. Once the teenage years hit then parents think it’s impossible to control their children and let them do what they want. Parents should be talking to their children, to them to keep them in line and under control.