A Homemade Education By Malcom X

Having the mind and determination to become successful isn’t an easy task. Success isn’t considered a gift, it should be a hard task to achieve and it matters how it is accomplished. Success

In Malcolm X's Article, "Learning to Read", he explains how he was self-instructed and how literacy affected his life starting with his time in prison and ending with his part in the civils rights movement. Malcolm X learned to read in prison because of all the time he had, if it were not for this he would probably continue using slang, and not be able to read or write. When entering prison Malcolm had education up to 8th grade, which he says would be hard to believe hearing how advanced he is now, but this did not stop him from copying the whole dictionary and learning every word possible. All this learning truly changed Malcolm's life, he was now able to read and could understand everything that he could not before. Malcolm began reading

Malcom X's "A Homemade Education" tells a story of how he gained knowledge by himself and how it guided his thoughts and ideas. Reading also molded his political views. Although Malcom X is a very outspoken person about racism in America, and throughout the world, I find that he has a right to be angry, but goes a little overboard on blaming whites.

In the story “Literacy behind bars” Malcolm X is not used to read or write correctly and unfortunately, he was in prisoned. He started reading because he wanted to be able to talk and know different things like Bibi. He had to use a dictionary to understand most of the words in the books that he took from the library. He had to learn new words and started to enhance his handwriting. As he encourage himself, he learned more and more. He was so passionate for literature that he could not stop reading different

In his essay, Malcolm X writes about how learning to read and write opened his eyes to the oppression that surrounded him and the world. Malcolm is a black man that was put in prison when he noticed that he felt uncomfortable when he did not understand anything that he read and that he could not write correctly. His incapacity to read and write was what inspired him to request a dictionary, something to write on and a pencil. That initiative changed his life forever. He copied down the whole dictionary, which helped him to learn words and their meanings. “ With

Fredrick Douglass was a slave, who secretly learned how to read and write in many different forms such as his mistress and pieced together the elements of literacy through outside sources such as old books, and writing tools from young children. Unlike Malcom X, he received an education although it was limited, and went to prison where he accessed books from the library. Malcom X stated in his essay Learning to Read, “An inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books.” Meaning reading was not allowed for slaves. Unlike Douglass situation, if he would have shown interest in a book he would have been punished for it. Being a slave Douglass had to keep his development in reading and writing hidden while Malcolm insisted on writing letters to Elijah Muhammad with his new acquired vocabulary. This proved that Malcolm’s education was easier to gain unlike Fredrick Douglass, through slavery reading and writing was much

Not at all like Douglas with no educational basis at all, Malcolm then again had gotten a training that of an eighth grader however time passed and soon did he overlook his lessons. He could figure out how to read yet couldn't pass on his words onto paper. In jail, he had time, time to restore his training and strengthen it. He started to compose, beginning with the dictionary he started adapting word for word, page for page, area by segment beginning with the An's and completing with the Z's. In his entry, Malcolm gives an announcement to set up a thought of what sort of training he persisted, "Between what I wrote in my tablet, and composing letters, amid whatever is left of my time in jail I would figure I composed a million words."

I feel that in order to achieve personal success in our society you need 3 key things. For one, you need to have determination. In our culture, we seem to have a universal ideology along the lines of “keep going, and you will succeed eventually.” I feel that these idea’s are incredibly true, and have been shown to be effective every time. A good example of this trait in one of the texts we read is in the Odyssey when Odysseus needed to get back home, and despite the odds being against him, he never gave up. He always kept going, and when the going got rough, he got back right up and started over again. Another trait is intelligence. Because we have gone away from warrior culture in modern times, academic success is more than mandatory to achieve

While smart men, both Douglass and Malcolm X did not have opportunities to become educated when they were younger. As they became educated, however, they showed similarities in their eagerness. Douglass stayed persistent, despite his mistress ending her lessons to him. He stated, “Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.” On the other hand, while Malcolm was not in danger by educating himself, he was still very eager to learn. Perhaps it occurred because of his boredom, but regardless, Malcolm picked up book after book, reading through them one after another. In every free moment, “if [he] was not reading in the library, [he] was reading on [his] bunk.” His effort to copy the dictionary just solidifies how invested he was in learning to read, write, and speak. Therefore, Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass both have a very sincere commitment to education.

In Baca's essay “A Homemade Education,” he explains that Malcolm X taught himself to read and write by copying the dictionary word for word; he began with letters and words which would later piece together to make sentences and paragraphs and eventually well thought out speeches such as “The Ballot or the Bullet”. During Malcolm X’s life span, he faced the hardships of a racist society and through the use of language he was able to become a prominent figure during the era the civil rights movement. All things considered, African Americans during this time did not have multiple opportunities for education, so Malcolm X Writing liberated his soul by allowing him to express his emotions and experiences to a greater audience. Language would not only free Malcolm X’s soul, but countless amounts of others as well, through the words he delivered with his advancements of the abolishment of segregation

Having the desire to be successful is one thing but without the doing the little things you will never get there. Successful people are committed to doing something every single day. Regardless of what is going on in their lives they work on their craft. They overcome the daily battle between procrastination and motivation. Every day, most people have a list of things they want to do; need to do; or should do; and what they don’t want to do. It’s these daily choices that are influenced by our discipline and

He could explored more new words than other people. Baca gave out free readings and speeches around the country after he became an author. Baca’s limited learning material, required him to work harder than Malcolm X. Malcolm X asserts “ I saw the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to learn study, to learn some words” (236). Rather than wasting time in the jail, he decided to memorize the new words from the dictionary. He found out that he didn’t know many words and he needs to learn the words. Malcolm X copied down the words with its meaning in the dictionary and reviewed the words again until he was able to remember the meanings. He continued learning the words and its meaning from the dictionary once after he completed one alphabet orders. For example, Malcolm X continued learning in letter B when he mastered the words from letter A. He gained more interest in learning words from the dictionary because he realized that the dictionary actually was an encyclopedia. Dictionary helped him to advance to the next level of readings in his life. With his unremitting efforts in learning from the dictionary, Malcolm X became one of the most famous

Malcolm X’s essay explains the way education can set one free, and how one can develope their own future. "Homemade Education," protrays the fustration and struggle of his own education while in prison. As well as being physically locked within a jail cell, Malcolm X felt captured mentally as well. Malcolm X was unable to recieve the proper education to ro allow him to be able to write letters to the outside world, prior to his life in prison, as he says,“...trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t functional” (page 225). This powerful, moving quote of his essay explains just how he felt and from this branches the uses of claims, pathos, logos, and ethos.

Although Malcolm X’s repetition does a splendid job of conveying his message, the strongest tools in his arsenal are his anecdotes, or short stories. Because the text is a narrative, it tells mostly of real events in his life. He tells this narrative through anecdotes about his time in prison reading countless books and texts. For example, he recounts the time that he read the dictionary, reciting countless volumes of words just to learn new things (162). This demonstrates that all of these event that he mentions happen to him and were true. When Malcolm X uses this anecdote he is saying that a simple dictionary furthered a man that would become one of the most prominent civil rights activists. This further proves his point that learning to read is the most important and influential ability

Most people in today’s society define success as someone who makes a lot of money or has done something important to help form today’s society. People such as Bill Gates or Donald Trump are considered successful because they have lots of money. Even actors whose lives are wrecked and destroyed are considered successful because of the money they have. Others, like Thomas Edison, are considered successful because of accomplishments they achieved in their lives. Thomas Edison, for example, created the light bulb, so most people would consider him successful. In his book, Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill gives 13 steps on how to have the right mindset, attitude, and ability to become successful.