The Benefition Of Education : Discriminated Education

He soon could pick up any book and understand what the book was saying. Malcolm X would read most of the hours in a day. He also mentions that he’d often forget he was imprisoned. “I never had been so truly free in my life.” “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life.”

Malcolm X did not have an easy life growing up. After the loss of his father, a Baptist minister and a black nationalist, and the admittance of his mother to a mental institution at an early

The author’s purpose for writing the book was for the reader to gain knowledge of Malcolm X as an individual and not as a phenomenon. He wanted to deliver truths that spanned his brief lifetime.

In his autobiography, he writes about his time in prison and his frustration in not being able to communicate properly to Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X started copying words from the dictionary and everything on the page down to the punctuation and began reading books on history, philosophy, and religion. He writes, “I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks. . . As my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying.”

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.

He had specific goal for his reading and learning although he spent seven years in prison. His goal was to serve the black man in term of Black and White separatism in the 1950’s in United States. His meaningful goal led to great reading and learning of certain subjects, such as Black history, Genetics, slavery, Chinese world history and philosophy. Constantly, he says, “You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man (X 85). Moreover, Malcolm’s education is really an educational experience. Unlike Mark’s education, Malcolm had to begin his fundamental education by learning the vocabulary. Henceforth, he daily spent numerous hours on reading books to gain knowledge and understanding. He himself did that spectacular job without any specific guidance, except for his curiosity only. He said, “I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity-because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about” (X 85). On the other hand, reading for the sake of knowledge was a significant way to help Malcolm feel a sense of freedom in spite of being in prison. Truly, the more he read, the freer he felt. He concludes that “I don’t think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensely than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college.” (X 85)

Malcolm X on the micro level involves interactions with many individuals throughout his life. From his parents and siblings to girlfriends and his wife, and even those he met in prison and after prison, they all played significant roles in Malcolm’s

Instead of going to school to get a traditional education, he dropped out of school at fifteen and learned the ways of the streets. Malcolm associated himself with thugs, thieves, dope dealers, and pimps. He was convicted of burglary at age twenty and remained in prison until he was twenty-seven. During his prison sentence, he became a changed man. He educated himself and he learned about and joined the Nation of Islam, studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammed. Elijah taught Malcolm how history had been “whitened by the white man” (p.184) and he echoed “the black convict’s lifelong experience” where “the white man is the devil,” (p. 186). This thought process encouraged many black inmates to discover the Nation of Islam.

While advocating for racial justice as a minister of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X claims that blacks must separate from their corrupt society and squarely blames the white man for the plight of blacks. The

After reading these passages written by Malcolm X, I learned some very interesting facts about him. First, I had no idea he was an ex-thug or ganster type. I was also unaware that he was in the prison system and often wrote letters to other people from pimps to politicians.

He saw educated prisoners achieve a certain celebrity status and desired these skills as well as status. Malcolm X describes these inmates and the status they possessed: “There were a sizeable number of well-read inmates, especially the popular debaters. Some were said by many to be walking encyclopedias. They were almost celebrities” (212). He envied these educated men and became determined to grow to be educated. In pursuing his self-taught education, “Malcolm X emerged as the leading spokesman for black separatism, a philosophy that urged black Americans to cut political, social, and economic ties with the white community” (intro 210). Not seeking the prestige or degree for his education, his efforts made him a leading advocate for the civil rights and liberties of African Americans and a leading spokesperson for the Nation of Islam.

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.

Through his readings and new found religion, the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X finds self-pride. He starts to become proud of who he is and where he came from. He realizes that before, all he was trying to do was act like someone he wasn’t and all it had gotten him was seven years in prison. The letters he got from Elijah Muhammad and his family encouraged all of this. He strives to admit his guilt, and “implore the forgiveness of God” (170). He would often “be startled to catch [himself] thinking in a remote way of [his] earlier self as another person” and marvel at how much he had changed (170). All the reading he did “awoke … some long dormant craving to be mentally alive” (179). His trip to prison opened up new doors for him because he gained knowledge that made him rethink his niche in life.

Malcolm graduated the eighth grade, but by the age of fifteen he dropped out of school and began running the streets. Malcolm began to make friends with drug dealers, thieves, and pimps. By the age of twenty, Malcolm was convicted of burglary, he then served seven years in prison. While in prison Malcolm, furthered his education. During his prison time, his brother Reginald would visit and discuss his recent encounters with the Muslim religion. His brother Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam. By the time Malcolm was released from prison, he had undergone a transformation from a criminal to a religious priest, for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm had become a student of Elijah Mohammed teachings. Through these teachings Malcolm developed individual views about race in America and around the world. The more Malcolm learned about the teachings, the more he despised white citizens and he blamed them for the struggle of African Americans.

But here equality means equal opportunities for two really equal groups but what we have now is one economically & socially advanced individual competing with resources lacking, economically constrained and in most of the cases faced with severe poverty and severely socially repressed individual fighting to survive in this big world. Suggestions that one should improve the basic standards of the socially and educationally backward and provide them the education and make them compete on merit is welcome but sheer common sense makes it clear that this is not a substitute for the State Affirmative