Malcom X: Go to jail if you want to get smart....

I actually was very interested in this story. I found it interesting the way Malcom X transformed from an illiterate hustler to an educated black culture leader. Whats even more interesting is that eveything he learned was from prison. There you go ladies and gentleman just go to jail and you'll come out a scholor.....or gay. Okay just kidding but seriously I found it remarkable that Malcom X studied up to 15 hours a day. He started by reading and copying the dictionary, "that is when I started copying waht eventually became the entire dictionary.....during the rest of my time in prison I would guess i wrote a million words." (224)



One of the more interesting topics Malcom X discussed in the reading was the history of the evil actions by the white race towards other races. "opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider, to how the whole world's white men had indeed acted like devils, pilaging and raping and bleeding the whole world's non-white people." (228) There was the British ruling over India, the white man were responsible for the opium wars in china, and caused china to close its door the western white world. (228-29) Even back in Malcom X's time the white man were still playing a skins game in the United Nations. (230) Which leaves us with the question is a skins game still being played in our world today? The answer is probably yes and probably will be yes as long as there are differant cultures and races.

Academic Selves

In the article, "Academic Selves," by Mary Pipher, she stresses on the fact that schools treat girls differently than they treat boys. (279) And she states interesting facts to prove it, for example "Teachers chose many more class activities that appeal more to boys," and " In animal stories the animal is twice as likely to be a boy." (279) It seems that because boys and girls act differently they are treated differently. "Boys receive more classroom attention and detailed instruction than girls. " (280) Well this is probably due to the fact that boys are more rambunctious than girls and they require more class attention and detailed instruction in order to learn. Girls are expected to sit down and obey the rules, and if they happen to fail instead of using the excuse of being rambunctious, they simply think that they are no good at it. It all comes down to the confidence factor. And in a way I agree with this. Its pointed out in the article that girls tend to let their dreams disappear mysteriously. " Because their confidence is attributed to good luck or hard work and failure to lack ability, with every failure, a girls confidence is crumbled. " (280) I have witnessed this first-hand. The girls heavily outnumber the men in my family, seriously I need a tamp-on just to fit in, and I see what failure can do to a girl. Currently my sister is trying out for the varsity soccer team. She is a little out of shape and needs to work hard to get back into shape. There are girls on the team that simply beat her in running just because they are in shape and she isn't. Every time she is beat she feels as if that is a failure on her part. This in turn discourages her and she feels like she wants to quit. Now to say that all girls struggle with confidence is incorrect. I know plenty of girls that are content with themselves and have more confidence than most guys I know. But for the girls that do have confidence problems it is important that they are encouraged and are taught to believe in themselves.
As well as confidence levels academics begins to fall as well with young girls. Specifically when they enter Jr. High. I have seen this in girls and guys and even in myself. Jr. High is definitely a weird stage in your life. Your going through puberty, your voice is cracking, you think you have facial hair(guys), and the opposite sex starts to look really appeal ling. You start to lose focus of that academic drive you once had and hanging out with friends and being popular is a new priority on your list.

English 99: Literacy among ruins

The article by Frank Gannon is an amusing and interesting article. I found it funny and I like how Gannon uses a sense of humor in it. The article is a description of Gannon's experience teaching an English 99 class at a College. Gannon describes the class as a pre requisite class for kids who can't handle regular English, is a pass/fail grade and is basically meant to get money out of the kids before they drop out. A class like this shouldn't exist. I think its horrible that a University would even take advantage of kids like that. But not all of the blame can be placed on the University. A lot of it has to go to High School English. Three out of my four English classes in high school were simply a waste of time. My teachers were slack-off teachers and the curriculum jumped all over the place. We read stories which a tape
player read to us, our assignments consisted of picking a quote from the reading and explaining it. Basically as long as you wrote in complete sentences you got credit. I hardly wrote any essays and when I did they were on which book did you like best? And tell me about your summer vacation? These classes were just regular English classes one step down from AP, which by the way my only regret is not taking AP English classes. And now coming into collegewhere I felt overwhelmed in the beginning of my English class. I felt as if the English class didn't do anything at all to prepare me for college level english. Now after a couple of weeks into college im adjusting to it but overall High School English, at least through my experience, is failing to prepare kids for college.

English 99: Literacy among ruins