Response to Graff

In Graff’s essay, the one thing that really struck my attention was that Americans wanted to lower the illiterate percentage only because they thought it would help the economy. It had nothing to do with having the population actually being able to read, but to see if it would help their economy grow. Of course this excluded African Americans and the poor because Americans feared what the outcome would be if they were able to read and write; just as we read about Frederick Douglass. But eventually they did, and so did the poor by all of the free schools being made so they can have their chance at learning. Even with all the hype of literacy going around, it didn’t mean you had an advantage if you knew how to read. There were very few cases where a person was given a better job because he was literate; it was mostly based on race, social class, and of course gender. It is interesting to see the total flip our society has made over all these years. Now it is determined on your education and training whether you can find a job or not. There are very few well paying jobs out there for people with out a college education, let alone a high school diploma.

Response to Rodriguez Precisis

I am in total agreement with SS because I felt the same way in reading this piece. As we discussed in class somethigns and stories are just inspiring and this was one of them for me. He got through life by trying to better himself and that is never a bad thing. I wish I could read as much as him and enjoy it as much but the drive for me is not there because I have to read so much for my classes. I love inspiring stories because they do make us feel so so even if just for a minute.I do though see nothing wrong with being a "scholarship boy" as I am a scholarship student myself and because it is made so much eaiser for me to go to school I love it all the more. I thinkk if I had to work all the time to pay for it I would not want it as much. I too motivates me to be eager to lear and there is never anything wrong with wanting to learn more. I do however think that it is not necessarily the money that hinders the child from learning at the secondary level but it is just a crutch and I find it a bad one. You can learn if you want to and you are the only one that holds yourself back. All in all I was inspired and saw myself as lucky in a way that I hadn't before.

Discovering a Passion

The first book that really grasped my attention was Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson. We were asked to pick a book of our choice in my sophomore English class and something about it intrigued me. It took me by surprise how much I enjoyed reading this novel and when I was finished with it, it almost felt like something was missing. I tried to continue reading other novels through out the year, but I just didn’t seem to click with anything. It wasn’t until my junior year, when my English teacher started reading Harry Potter, that I became even more infatuated with reading. I read every book of the series and again had that feeling of missing something when I completed each book. So I continued to read for my class The Great Gatsby, Black Boy, and a few others. By the end of the year, I realized that reading wasn’t as bad as I thought it had been before. And my passion grew even more once I became aware of Jane Austen and all of her brilliant novels. It is now hard for me to go into a book store and not buy something; especially in the classic literature section.
My parents are very encouraging when it comes to reading; especially my mom. She is the one person in my household that prefers to read instead of watching television. While I was growing up she would constantly urge me to read a book if I was bored. Both of my parents are active readers, yet have very different tastes. My mom reads true crime novels; while my dad reads a lot of history novels. My mom constantly wonders where I got my taste of classic and modern literature from.

Justice in Literacy

As I read everyone’s autobiographical posts for week 2, I noticed that everyone’s experience was different. While that is expected since we are all individuals, I thought I would find more similarities or common patterns in our literacy acquisition. I believe that shows that the environment that a child is in and the resources that child has available to him is a critical element in whether or not a child will have access to literacy as well as thrive in it. One thing I found fascinating about Douglass’ account of his journey to literacy was how hungry and cunning he was. He needed to learn, as if his entire being would fall off the face of the earth if he did not learn. Is that hunger within all children, including the ones that society and the school system seem to write off? Is the inquisitive nature and burning fire for knowledge a part of our human nature? And if so, who is it that is beating the fires out of these seemingly disinterested children? The question was posed in class “Who owns literacy?” That is a question that I have no answer to, but out of that question I started to think of who takes literacy for granted. What would happen to most of us if we didn’t have the opportunity to learn to read and write? I know I’ve been very fortunate in having extremely supportive parents, been in excellent schools, and have had amazingly wonderful and dedicated teachers. I often wonder where I would be if I didn’t have all of those things, all of those things that I often took for granted. While watching the Freedom Writers in class, the question popped up in my mind; What would have become of me if instead of having the whole world support me, I had the whole world against me? It’s a question that has grounded me, and will help shape how I see my students when I begin to teach.

Bookworm

I think the first time I was ever truly affected by a book was when I read Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I had always felt compassion for the protagonists of the novels I read at school, but this novel really grabbed me. I was introduced to this book in my junior honors English class. One of my classmates proclaimed that she loved Thomas Hardy and thought he was a fabulous writer; I on the other hand had no idea who he was. I pretty much proceeded with reading the book as I did with any other assigned reading. I had no idea that it would strike me as it did. Now before I read Tess, I’ve read plenty of novels that I love and still own to this day, but those books were just intricate entertaining plots to me, written with eloquence and precision. Tess, however, was different. It struck me in a way that I still find hard to describe. I think it was Hardy’s plot that really got me. This innocent, sweet girl pretty much gets hammered over and over again, to no fault of her own. She had no control over any situation she was in. What spoke to me the most in Tess is that she remained strong through all her plights. That image of a strong but gentle woman struck me, and has always stayed with me.
As I stated in my previous autobiographical essay, reading was a major part of my childhood. My mother took me to the library once a week to get books and reading was one of my favorite pastimes. There wasn’t much television or video game playing in my household, so the environment was conducive to doing other activities such as reading. My mom had a very impressive collection of books herself. She grew up as an avid reader, which is why she stressed reading in our family so much. The other reading materials in my home were mainly magazines. My mom subscribed to Parents magazine, among others that I was not allowed to read simply because they were not appropriate for my age. I remember reading along in the Parents magazine in the section called As They Grow. I would always read the section that featured my age group to see if I was developmentally on track. It’s really funny now that I think back on it.
The last novel I read with real enjoyment was Sula by Toni Morrison. Morrison has an exquisite writing style that will draw you in as soon as you read the first line on the first page. It also appealed to me because it had my two favorite subjects in it, sex and death (for some reason all of my favorite novels have sex and death in them). Also, what appeals to me about the subjects of sex and death in novels is how the author places them in the plot and how the characters deal and react to them, not because I have some weird fetish (just a disclaimer). =)

Autobiographical Piece 2

The first time I can truly remember a book affecting me and catching my attention was in middle school. I was having trouble finding a book that could keep my attention and when I went to my language arts teacher she had the perfect book in mind. It was not only a book but it was a four book series by Caroline B. Cooney; it was called Both Sides of Time. This book at the time was so amazing and it grabbed my attention and so much so though that I could not put it down until I finished reading it. I can remember it so much so because I was really excited about the book and everytime I look at the books now I still get a little bit of that feeling back. This book mattered to me so much because it let me know what type of books I was into and now that I am older I read the older versions of the same genre.
When I was younger I only remember big books being read if required by the teacher and other books read for fun were more like graphic novels and real kiddie books full of pictures. My parents would tend to read fairytales to us at night to get us to go to sleep and once they were done it was the golden book series of every story. Mainly books were “at your leisure as you like” type of thing. They were there but we mainly chose when and where to read. My parents were very hard on reading the required stuff though because it was obviously more important because the teacher required them. They would even quiz us on the chapters to make sure we were reading and if we did not get every question right then we were to read it again.

"Scholoarship boy"

Rodriguez, "The Achievement of Desire"

In Rodriguez’s essay, “The achievement of Desire” was about a boy that grew up in a different cultural and his family wasn’t there to support him throughout his education because he felt that they were uneducated and un-motivated to read to him. His childhood teachers which were nuns had encouraged him to achieve where he is now. His family has helped him realize who he is and made him stronger in dealing with the pain. He mentions how it seemed like he was living in “two different worlds” meaning that his family life was completely different from his life at school. He loved to go to school and throughout his education has been reading a lot of upper class books which his teachers would brag about to the other students. Rodriguez referred to him as the “scholarship boy”, he read this term in a book he read by Hoggart which was “ The uses of Literacy” which he related his life to the examples in that book. He knew that he was this kind of boy who loved to read and who get a lot of education and someday find the real reason why he done all of this hard work. All his teachers would say “your parents must be proud of you”, but I seemed like he never really shared his accomplishes with his family. Since he felt that they would never understand why he was so motivated to learn.
I feel that the most insightful part of the essay was the motivation that he got from himself to push him further in his education because of how his family was. I could related to that experiences, when your own brother and sister and making fun of you because you do care about you future and your education. You want to do something with your life and these family members are putting you down because you are making them look bad or because they see it as worthless if the rest of the family doesn’t encourage it. When Rodriguez continues to explain his life story of how he became to love reading, he mentions all these books that he read when younger and ones that he uses to relate things back to other books. I think would be amazing, if I had the passion to keep reading and not had so many distractions when I was younger. Reading his article was motivation to me that I need to read more and by doing so I will achieve my goals in life plus just being able to understand my life better. “Two negatives make a positive” is a great way to look at ways things are and how to understand. I feel it is an optimistic way of looking at his family.
...SS