Comparing Learning To Read And The Library Card

As soon as humans walked the earth, since the beginnings of time, learning was the most vital in order to survive. This was, and still is today, the most important part of adaptation, problem-solving, and creation of life itself. Without it, our society would never move forward and humanity would never advance. Undeniably, education is the start of everything in life itself meaning that it continuously surrounds every aspect of life. In both Frederick Douglass’s essay, “Learning to Read” and Jonathan Kozol’s essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” they both share different consequential examples dealing with illiteracy. Douglass focuses on his quest to becoming literate while facing the hardships of battling slavery.

In the excerpt “Learning to Read and Write”, Frederick Douglass talks about his experiences in slavery living in his masters house and his struggle to learn how to read and write. Frederick Douglass was an African American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. Some of his other writings include “The Heroic Slave”, “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”. In this excerpt, Frederick Douglass uses an empathic tone, imagery, certain verb choice, contrast, and metaphors to inform African Americans of how important it is to learn to read and write and also to inform a white American audience of the evils of slavery. I find Frederick Douglass to

In the Daily Gazette, Micaela Baranello states that Diane Anderson, a Swarthmore Education professor, emphasized, “The importance of realizing that just because students speak outside of the dominant discourse does not mean they are deficient, but rather that they are different” (Baranello). This demonstrates that if someone is different somehow, it should not degrade them, and that is what both Gloria Anzaldua in How to Tame a Wild Tongue and Frederick Douglass in Learning to Read explain in their texts. Even though Anzaldua promotes language identity while Douglass encourages an overall education, they both promote social justice and tolerance through the role of literacy.

It is unsettling to imagine what my life would be like if my father was not fortunate enough to receive the education and guidance that he had. Maybe my parents would not have left the crime-ridden streets of Johannesburg to seek safer lives. I probably would have followed in my grandfather’s footsteps and worked in the grim conditions of a South African gold mine. Perhaps I would become a discouraged alcoholic like my uncle, working as an underpaid, over-scheduled steel mill welder. It is not possible to know, but in most likelihood, I would not be in the fortunate position I am now. Education is a necessity to attain a prosperous life. A strong educational foundation must concentrate on the skills of reading and writing. Often a quality education is not accessible to lower socioeconomic class citizens, which results in those people remaining stagnant in their current class. In Sherman Alexie’s essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, it is clear that individuals of lower class designations must seek alternate methods to become literate to compensate for the limited opportunities they have due to stereotypes that obstruct access to effective education.

Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as “a highly conventionalized genre” indicating that “its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass 's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass…are widely recognized today.” (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have penned down their autobiography to present the misery of their fellow beings.

In the excerpt “Learning to Read” from his 1965 Autobiography, Malcolm X argues that he had more opportunity to learn about the world and specifically black history in prison than he would have received in a formal education setting. He describes the process in which he essentially taught himself how to read and write, and how it lead to an awakening of his desire to learn everything he could through voracious reading. X illustrates to the reader the painful histories that he read about and the powerful knowledge which he gained to show that one needs little more than access to a book collection and the motivation to learn in order to become educated. This reading resonated with me as a learner whose love for independent learning often takes a backseat to the demands of academia and provides a key concept which I plan to instill in my students as a future teacher.

In the narrative excerpt “Learning to Read and Write” (1845), which originally came from the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass recapitulates his journey into the coming of literacy that shifts his point to how slavery really is. Douglass develops and supports his main idea by providing a flashback of his own experience as a slave learning to read and write and through dialogue with rhetorical appeals, such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Douglass’ apparent purpose is to retell his story of the obstacles he faced to finally become a free man to guide and prompt other fellow slaves to finally take action for their freedom; he also wants to establish a foundation in which people of higher power, such as abolitionists, are more aware of the slavery situation. The intended audience for this excerpt is the general public of the time consisting of fellow slaves, slave owners, and abolitionists; the relationship Douglass establishes with the audience is equivalent to a news reporter and the people receiving the message—he exposes the truth to them.

Literacy is the basic building block for the rest of an academic career and the lifetime that follows it. Research shows that kids who come from homes where reading was a priority, and they were read to by their parents, perform better academically throughout their lives. It starts at home, parents have to make their children read the book as well as see the films. Only 53 percent of children ages 3 to 5 are read to every day by a family member, though, and that number drops for families with incomes below the poverty line. If you look at History African Americans were not allowed to read for such a long period of time and it’s like now we’re getting the hang of it. Knowledge is power and reading is the beginning of it all. Society doesn’t want Black to be powerful or educated so they take it all away by sending Blacks to prison. It’s how they keep it all under control. Reading allows you to write your own future and is very

Through out the years African Americans in the south were not only treated unfairly, but they were also viewed as property rather than human beings; and were forced to follow certain laws that white people made. They were not granted the right to be free or to practice their own beliefs. During the 19th century, the 13th amendment was established, with the intention to free African Americans from their suffering. However, African Americans dreams were broken into many pieces since “their freedom” wasn’t truly a freedom in the end. Living most of his life through Slavery, Fredrick Douglass, eventually wrote “Learning to Read and Write”. In the same manner, Richard Wright, the author of “The Library Card” explained

“I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” is what Governor Jimmy Carter said during his Inaugural Address on January 12, 1971, but it was not always true. In the texts, “Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie, and, “Learning to Read and Write,” by Frederick Douglass there are clear issues of racial discrimination between both authors, and there are also many other similarities and differences throughout Frederick and Sherman’s demanding upbringing, the most prominent are the main character’s obstacles, goals, and the situations the authors are in during their journey.

Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world… if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would be unfit for him to be a slave”’ (Douglass 6). Douglass’s master makes it clear that education and knowledge was sacred and a prize possession that a slave or African American should know nothing

Generally, every individual’s learning experience has its own inspiring and meaningful stories; a learning experience that has its own unique distinctions, interpretations, complications, sacrifices, has its endless possibilities, and most importantly, a learning experience that has its own effective action and optimistic option for execution. For example: In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie highlights his enjoyment of reading and writing. He claims that as a kid, he reminds himself that he is a “smart Indian boy” even though it is not recognized on a reservation or even if non-Indian teachers believe that Indian children are stupid. Similarly, in “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass demonstrates that slaves are entitled to have the same rights to learn about reading and writing as any other Americans. He testifies that his masters, including his fellow slaves believe that slavery and education were not compatible. Moreover, in “On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion conveys that she masters writing through examining her own writing on a piece of a notebook about herself and other people. Likewise, in “Learning to Read,” Malcolm X expresses that books are his “Alma Mater” because he becomes proficient in writing in a course of copying every single word in a dictionary. He clarifies that he develops his skills in reading and writing despite the fact that he is an African-American prisoner.

In the early 1900s, blacks in the American South had social restrictions placed on them due to Jim Crow laws. Reading, although it was legal, was still frowned upon, and harsh punishments, both legal and quasi legal, were meted out to blacks who contravened the segregation laws. In “The Library Card,” an excerpt from Black Boy, Richard Wright exploits Mr. Falk, a Jewish Catholic man, for his library card so he could get books from the library to enlighten himself. In this narrative, which is punctuated with metaphors, Wright implies that the library card gives him the chance to acquire knowledge about political and social issues regarding

Illiteracy rates, particularly among African Americans and other minority groups, are profoundly troubling and demand innovative solutions”. (1) Ntiri expresses that The United states of America is going through a literacy crisis means that Illiteracy rates are increasing by the day. Also Nitrite went into an explanation on how African American in The United States of America are the most iletrate race in the U.S. Also according to Ntiri, “Adult literacy is a double-edge sword. It can serve as a mechanism to enhance individual well-being and can mobilize human resources for political and economic development in a rapidly changing world. Additionally, it can serve as an instrument for the reproduction of social inequality… Literacy leads to better access to opportunities, as well as give a marked advantage over those who remain illiterate”.(1) Being literate not only benefits individuals but it benefits an individual's society as a whole. The more literate a nation is the stronger the nation is and the United States is having a literacy crisis making the nation weak. Being a strang literate nation has political and economic benefits when it comes to how courts are set up and how a nation spends it’s money. Lastly Nitrite states that “Latonia is a 36-year-old African American woman from Detroit, Michigan. She joined a local community-based adult literacy program with a seventh grade reading level. She wants to leam to read recipes and grocery store ads...Fifty-two-year-old Alphonse is also African American from Detroit with low literacy skills. His reason for participating in an adult literacy program is to learn to read the Bible. Alphonse is a Seventh Day Adventist, and unlike most African American males of his age cohort, he married and started a family at age 20. He was a high school dropout with less than a ninth grade education. However, he always dreamed of becoming a

    Through literacy will come emancipation. So runs a theme throughout the various selections we have read thus far. But emancipation comes in many forms, as does literacy. The various aspects of academic literacy are rather obvious in relation to emancipation, especially when one is confronted with exclusion from membership in the dominant culture. In the various slave narratives we have examined, all but one writer, Mary Prince, managed to achieve academic literacy to varying degrees (although, Mary Prince was in the process of learning to read and write). And even though she was not literate, Mary was