Children in America’s Schools” (141 – 156)

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I have to admit, I am very grateful for my education when I read about the children in Camden. We have maybe one drop out a year, and yet they have hundreds. How can people just let this happen? What ever happened to no child left behind? Wouldn’t that work out there? My school is like a university compared to Camden, and we have far few students. The only issue we have is teacher salaries, and most teachers are barely scraping by at our school. The principle however makes about 60000 a year; a teacher is lucky to get half of that. There is something wrong there, anyone can point that out but nobody really says anything.

I always had good teachers for writing and reading, but it was not until high school when I got interested with it. Mrs. Harden was one of my favorite teachers, she could find the best in anyone, and she always made us laugh, thanks to her, I really enjoyed writing stories and reading.

With college, I did know what to expect for my education. Long nights of studying for countless test, days without any sleep, struggling keeping grades up, but it is worth it in the end. To get that college degree is my goal, but its not just earning your degree but what you do with it.

The best thing about my high school was that the teachers actually cared what happened to us, they helped us in everyway possible, about 4/5 of my graduating class is in college right now, that’s a pretty impressive number

How I Learned To Read And Write

When I think of Douglass’s story of how he had to teach himself or find creative ways to be taught to read and write, I see that it’s so much different than when I learned to read and write. Unlike his time period, ours’ we are demanded to read and write to do anything with our lives, that wasn’t the case back in the 1800’s. By law he wasn’t allowed to have anything to do with reading or writing. He is a good example of self-determination. He set his eyes on learning to become free one day. He is considered a inspiration to our time period, with all that he had to go through just for a basic education. Not to mention how creative he was, when he had writing contests to get the kids to write out letters so he could later use them to his own benefit.

For me, I had teachers and mentors to teach me, and honestly he learned at a faster pace than I. I didn’t really understand reading until the 5^th grade. Before that I was constantly sounding out words to understand them because I really didn’t pay much attention in class to be taught, which only hurt me in my education back then.

There are a few similarities though when you think about it. Like we demand everyone to speak English, just like back in the 1800’s. If you couldn’t speak accurate English then you were considered stupid.