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.

Kozol

In “Savage Inequalities “by Jonathan Kozol  a teacher began teaching at a school so overcrowded and poor that the fourth grade had to share the auditorium with  another fourth grade class and a choir. The class was so behind on their education, they had not had a permanent teacher since kindergarten. They had over a dozen subs in just one semester. This affected there learning levels, they could read at a second grade level and their math even worse. The teacher started to read the children poems by Robert Frost and Langston Hughs. But little did he know that the poems were inflammatory and to advanced for the children and he was fired. He was fired for trying to improve the lives of the children who were being cheated out of opportunity to further their education.  After being fired Kozol was hired at another school. It happened to be one of the wealthiest schools; it was startling coming from one of the poorest schools. After teaching for a few years he became interested in the health and education of farm workers in New Mexico and Arizona. Then after visited schools and neighborhoods and spoke with the children, even meeting with them in their homes. Segregation stuck out like a black sheep in a snow covered field.  In most of the schools he visited 95 to 99 percent of the students were non white. Most of the cities noticed and said there hadn’t been any changes in segregation. Kozol wants to be the children’s voice, and help people be more aware of what others are going through.

Why I Decided to Go to College?

I decided to come to college because I want to further my education so I
can provide for my daughter. Neither of my parents went to college and
they both have decent paying jobs, but I have grow up watching them
struggle. I have herd my mother say numerous times that she wishes she
would have went to college. This has made me want to attend college, I
don’t want to struggle or have to depend on my parents. College has
opened my eyes, showing me that I have to make my own choices. Choosing
what classes to take, attending class, and doing my homework are all my
own choices. Having a toddler makes this very difficult for me, she
needs my undivided attention. I know in the long run I will be happy
with my decision to attend college. Something I already think about and
regret is not waiting to go to college. I am fresh out of high school
and I don’t have the focus or drive to learn. I think if I were to be
older and ready for college I would feel much better about college. One
thing that is difficult for me to deal with is the teachers who
constantly bring up the fact that college isn’t for everyone. Some days
I don’t feel like college is for me. No matter how hard college gets I
will not drop out because I would not only be letting myself down but
Aubrey also.

Task Two

What is the thesis for your paper? It amazes me to know that my grandfather want to go bach to school after so many years, especially after being retired.

List the main points you make in your paper. My grandfather is retired, all the schools he attended, and how he wanted his children to finnish school.

What was the most helpful advice you received from your peer evaluation? How I needed to connect some of my sentences and how to fix my conclusion.

What was the most helpful information you received in class for your paper? The interview papers

How many drafts of this paper do you think you wrote and how/when did you write them? For example, did you compose at the keyboard, did you write lots of notes to yourself, did you pre-write or outline, did you write in small chunks of time or sit down and produce an entire draft at one sitting? I wrote a ton of notes, then did my outline, then I sat at my computer and wrote the whole paper.

What would you do differently with this paper to make it more effectively, or what did you try to do that you just don’t think you got a good handle on? I dont think I should of wrote my paper over my grandpa, he didnt go back to school.

What are most pleased with about this paper? How easy it was to bring all the information together.

Becoming Educated

An education is knowledge you learn at school to prepare you for your future. I think an education is important to everyone not only children. You start your education at an early age because your brain is like a sponge and will absorbe everything that you hear. An education is very valuable, it something that takes many years to get and you'll have it for a life time! how far you go with your education is your decision not anyone else's. If you want to drop out of high school you can, if you dont want to go to college you dont have to, but if you want to go back to school when your thirty or fourty you can.