A Love for Books

 

A Love for Books

        In reading both Malcolm X’s and Benjamin Franklin’s educational narratives I found as many similarities as there were differences. Of course one of the prevalent differences would be the era in which the pieces were written. Malcolm X’s autobiography was published in 1965 where Benjamin Franklin’ piece was from the early 1700s making it especially difficult to read.

        I found that Malcolm X”s excerpt was more of a step by step educational piece that the reader could easily follow. If someone wanted to try this for their own benefit, they certainly could.

        On a similar note, they were both self-taught and shared their love for reading and books, practically ingesting anything they could get their hands on. They both stayed up well into the night taking in the gift of written words with every spare moment they had.

        I found both stories inspirational, although Malcolm X’s narrative made me want to keep going, I want to read more, know more about him. It almost made me want to pick up the dictionary myself, where Benjamin Franklin’s narrative I just wanted to get through in the hopes that I might be able to retain enough information to complete my assignment.

Average

Mike Rose 

1)   After having his tests scores confused with Tommy Rose, it seemed that Mike received a second rate education by teachers who were not qualified to teach Voc. Ed, and not inventive enough to keep a student’s mind involved. This is especially true for a class of hard to reach students. I have had teachers that were meant to do what they do; teachers that made me look forward to class. I have also had teachers that have no business in the classroom. The right teacher can make all the difference in the world as can the wrong teacher, and it only takes one.

2)   I feel that the Vocational Education that the students of Our Lady of Mercy’s school received lowered the student’s expectations of themselves and the expectations that others had of them. “Students will float to the mark you set.” I believe this statement to be true, the students of these classes learned to have a don’t care attitude. This was to protect them emotionally and socially.

3)   Some students can check out while others adopt humor or sarcasm and even bullying to cope. Ken Harvey just gave up on pushing himself past the point of average. He decided that it was good enough to be mediocre.

4)   What I am finding disorienting about college is that it has been so long for me since I was in school that I have forgotten things I haven’t used and things have changed so much. I feel a little out of the loop and definitely out of my comfort zone. The only thing I know to do is to keep going and to be honest about my insecurities. I know that I am not alone.

5)   In being honest I was placed in EH (Emotionally Handicapped) classes in elementary school and then later diagnosed with mental illness. I understand having lowered expectations but that just means that I have to work a little harder.

 

I found “I Just Wanna Be Average” full of rich character descriptions; this allows the reader to visualize each person and brings the story to life. I will use detailed descriptions, such as sight, smell and sound to try to place my reader right there with me in my own narrative.   

Cubing

Boarding School

Describing it:

Boarding school is of course a private school where you reside day and night throughout the school year. You would eat your meals there; you would spend your nights there. You would study for classes and take those classes all in the same location. You may or may not have a roommate; it may be of a religious background as was mine. I went to a Seventh Day Adventist boarding school where we had worship starting at six in the morning. You may have a job or chore you are required to perform. It may have a military background. In my school, students and staff all lived on the same campus. Boarding school put simply; is a school where you attend, live and board.

Compare it:

I will compare the differences and similarities of boarding schools with traditional schools. In traditional schools you attend class for approximately six hours per day, and then return home for social activities, family time and homework, maybe a sport or music lesson and chores. Whereas in boarding school all of that is done in one location, classmates become more of your family and your teachers more like your parental figures. In boarding school, you can’t say “the dog ate my homework” and if you are out sick you are sent to the staff doctor. In traditional school, it more up to you and your family structure as to how seriously you take your education and what you have to put in.

Associate it:

There are many ways that boarding school and traditional schools are the same. Many of the same subjects are taught and the food is usually lousy. But I would probably associate it more closely to a military type of rigorous schedule, maybe between a college type dorm experiences with a military type of structure. As the school I attended was also Seventh Day Adventist, it could also be associated with church and worship; we ate vegetarian meals and wore no makeup or jewelry as in the Seventh Day teachings and men and women were separated other than in class.

Argue it:

There are many benefits to attending a private boarding school, the structure and discipline you gain and the educational experiences. My home and office are immaculate at all times.

What I would argue is that in my school situation I feel that individuality and identities were lost. I’m not sure that we were taught to think for ourselves or outside of the box. When I am not given clear parameters, it makes me nervous, I don’t know where to start and need a lot impute from others.  

Analyzing Swim Suits

Swim Suits

Swim suits can be made from many different fabrics, some have beads or sequins, and on run ways I have even seen them made with feathers. They come in many shapes and sizes from speedos (no one should ever wear a speedo by the way) to thongs, from one piece to two. Back in some of our great grandparent’s day they may have even gone past the knee. But primarily swim suits were created for swimming. In Florida where I am from people live in there swim suits and a pair of shorts all year round. In the winter they may throw a pair of sweat pants over the suit, but it's still there.

Confetti's Application

Confetti’s  

Confetti has many uses, my favorite would be the use for vacuuming as in vacuuming up the little holes punched out of my papers at work, or even from the paper shredder spread all over the floor fresh after being emptied, of course that may not be as much fun as the confetti showering down on you at a new year’s eve party or any party for that matter. Do you remember those little plastic bottles with the string? You would pull the string and a loud pop would be heard then a stream of crinkly paper would shoot out all over your target. Then there is also the silly string form of confetti used to attack your kids with, oh and I almost forgot about that plastic stuff used in our Easter baskets. There are many many uses for confetti!

Prewriting Techniques

Past Prewriting Techniques

        I have tried various types of prewriting techniques for a number of projects and assignments, but they almost always begin with brainstorming. I like to get several points of views and gather ideas and data before putting them down on paper.

        Another technique I am becoming comfortable with is Mapping. My Mapping to date is a combination of Clustering and Branching, where my subject is in the center of the page and my ideas sprawled out in all directions around it. I used this technique in our first blog when comparing the two narratives we were assigned.

        Last but easily my favorite would be free writing where sometimes my very first sentence starts with; I don’t know what to write about, or I don’t know where to begin. I will write nonstop for ten to twenty minutes before reading what I’ve written. Some of it may have no relevance what so ever, but somewhere in there I usually find what I’m looking for.

        I have not tried Listing, but I may use this for our first assignment. For me the hardest part is just getting started and prewriting is a way to get your ideas on paper sometimes before you even know what they are.    

"Learning to Read" The Autobiography of Malcolm X

           

            In “Learning to Read,” an excerpt from Malcolm X’s autobiography, he talks about the frustrations of not being able to adequately express himself in the letters he wrote to Mohammad during his time in prison. He then takes it upon himself to write down the entire dictionary word for word as a form of a “homemade education.” He shows the exact steps he took to learn to read, to write, and to understand far beyond his eighth grade education.

            To begin his project, Malcolm was flipping through the pages of his dictionary and said, “Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.” This is also something that I found in common with Feross Aboukhadiejeh’s attitude in “How I Learned to Program Computers.” He states, “It doesn’t matter what you build, as long as you pick something and start.” This stands out to me because that is where I get stuck in my writing; I spend so much time in the planning phases that sometimes it’s hard to know just where to begin and to let things flow.

            With our first assignment, I think the best thing for me is to just get started, to start at the beginning and see where it takes me.