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The importance of education in the prison system
Learning to read malcolm x author purpose
Importance of Malcolm X's Learning to Read journey
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Recommended: The importance of education in the prison system
If a survey were to ask a group of individual if they could choose to either go to jail or go to college for their education, what would they prefer? Of course, college would be the popular choice since jails are not typically a place for learning, rather a place for the confinement of criminals from the world due to the immoral choices they made. The individuals asked this question, mainly early adults, would most likely not have read the autobiography of Malcolm X and the impact his incarceration had on his educational path and how it helped him to be literate so he could interpret the world of writing and understand anything that he read. The points he made referred to how he began to understand the words he read and how college was actually a less effective place to study because there are countless distractions in college and the focus of the college experience is not learning rather than the activities done in college. …show more content…
I live with my parents and it is occasionally difficult to concentrate on my work since they are many distractions in my room. A computer, a television, a gaming console all reside in my room and they all seem tempting to pay attention or play with while I do my boring homework that assigned. This is frustrating because it is easy to lose focus while doing a long essay and maybe a little playtime would not hurt, but time really does fly by when you are having fun. This leads me to procrastination and a less effective paper. Now I will say this, my computer is a crucial tool for my studies because I write all of my essays on it. That is the only thing I would keep in my room as it helps me with my schoolwork. All the other disturbances must go so I can pay attention to my
In this essay “Saved,”’ by Malcolm X. Malcolm is talking about how he went to prison and how that made him want to improve his language. So he got a holed of a dictionary and read it. while doing this, he though to himself he also could improve his hand writing so when he would read the dictionary he would also write down what he read. than he would read what he wrote down out loud, this made him a faster writer and a good reader. Now because of this, Malcolm loved reading he said he would stay up all night reading and only would get 4 to 5 hours of sleep, but that was all he needed.
In "Learning to Read," an excerpt found in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, author Malcolm X attacks his illiteracy while imprisoned for battling the white man. Malcolm in his conversations with other prisoners realized he was not as articulate with the hustlers in prison as he was in the street. Bimbi, a fellow prisoner in Charlestown Prison would take over conversations because of his vast vocabulary and knowledge from reading. This knowledge was where Malcolm X drew his inspiration to be Malcolm just as intelligent. This was his initial start toward his autonomous learning. Malcolm X explains, “Bimbi made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge.” He became fascinated with the vast amount of knowledge of Bimbi. When X first arrived in prison, the highest education he had was that of an eighth grader. Therefore, Malcolm begins reading to obtain the same eloquent speech, but he comes across a dilemma. X explains how he could not comprehend every word in the sophisticated books Bimbi read. Malcolm became frustrated because he could only read the words he knew but in the end had no under...
In the autobiography of Malcolm X, the life of one of this nation's most notorious activists is explained in a depth that very few people have had the privilege of experiencing before. The author shows all the factors went into play to make Malcolm X the man he was. When reading the text, the reader begins to feel the passion and fire that X had inside himself. The general idea and direction of the story is made clear on the first page of the book.
Shorris wanted to explore on poverty in America and write a book based on opinions on what keeps people poor. Therefore, as results of varied conversations with special people in prison, Shorris came to support the prisoner, Viniece Walker’s, argument that destitute students are those most in need of a liberal education. Viniece introduced Shorris to the thought of the “moral life of downtown”, meaning to expose them to museums, lectures, etc. (Page 2), which he understood as the need for reflection for the poor. This emphasizes the very fact that in order for the poor to escape from their “surround of force” (Page 1) they must undergo a transformation rooted in reflection and self-realization. Shorris believes that “the surround of force is what keeps the poor from being political and the absence of politics in their lives is what keeps them poor.”(Page 1) He further explains that by political he means: “activity with other people at every level, from the family to the neighborhood to the broader community city-state”(Page 1). This idea of a different type of learning, instead of your everyday math and English, but a broader education where there isn’t always a right or wrong answer is what Shorris believes is the key difference maker. Thus with these new realizations, Shorris set up an experiment to verify his theory of the importa...
When Malcolm hit the eighth grade his English teacher Mr. Ostrowski asked what he would like to do for a career when he was an adult. Malcolm said that he would like to become a lawyer. Mr. Ostrowski’s retort would be burned into Malcolm’s head for eternity. “A lawyer-that’s no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be.” Malcolm left Lansing and went to Boston to live with his sister Ella, because she had gotten custody of him and life in Lansing was unbearable. Malcolm stated “Whatever I have done since then, I have driven myself to become a success at it.” Malcolm was now mad at the world for the hardships it had given him, and he was determined to not let it get in the way of him being what he wanted to
In the essay “Learning to Read” Malcolm X explains his personal transformation during the time he spent in jail. With only an eighth grade education, Malcolm became jealous of the intellectual gap between other inmates and himself. He began to read books from the Norfolk Prison Colony’s library, but he could not understand most of the words (275). This led Malcolm to obtain a dictionary and copy down each word in it. He started to devour books after enhancing his vocabulary and was finally able to understand the themes and make connections within the books he read (275).
In “Learning To Read” by Malcolm X he had talked about his time in prison and how he devoted his time there to work on his vocabulary and his penmanship.
All four names throughout the The Autobiography of Malcolm X came with a obstacle and a life lesson that Malcolm had to face. I feel like his childhood played a big part on his upbrings into his adult stage. My reason as to why I say this is because no one was there to guide him on how to become a man so he had to learn on his own. So he went to the street to learn how to be wise and street smart if his dad was alive things would not have been so difficult because he would of teached Malcolm how to become a man and also he wouldn't be in some much trouble with the. In the the Autobiography it seems as if prison was life lesson because that's when he started reevaluating his life and thinking more deeper about more his choices and also
Malcolm X is a prominent civil rights activist who believed in fighting violence with civil disobedience. Malcolm X also used his religious beliefs as a foundation for his social activism. His objective was to end discriminate and hate crimes against African Americans. Essentially, he was a separatist that fought violence with violence. In “Learning to Read” excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm discusses the significance of harnessing the art of reading and the impact learning how to read had on the profession he chose to pursue later on in life.
Clarity and cognizance from the ability to read ignited a flame in his soul, and despite being imprisoned, Malcolm “…never had been so truly free in [his] life” (125). The dictionary emancipated Malcolm from the mental penitentiary which he had lived in throughout the entirety of his life. Understanding of previously unknown language and better developed reading capabilities allowed him to take full advantage of the prison library: “…[He] could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying” (125). The physical prison that confined Malcolm actually benefited him in that he was able to fully apply himself to research without the distractions of typical college
Malcolm X served prison for seven years. During the times in prison, he changed to a whole new different person. Before he was sent to prison, he was a hustler, drug addict, thief, and etc. jobs was discriminated against the colored skin people during Malcolm’s time and the jobs he was able to achieve was low status. He had many reasons why he went rogue. Malcolm’s mental model “Doing Time” was Influence by his social relations and material conditions in prison.
Dodd, Vikram. "Why Prison Education?." . Prison Studies Project, Teaching Research Outreach, 16 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .
The essay starts off with Murray saying of course more people be encouraged to go to college then countering with a yes and no to the question. He agrees that yes getting a education is important but majority of people are going for what they should have learned years before reaching the college level. The way people see college as a way to be success doesn't sit well with him as he gives many reasons to why this is false. The statement "college is seen as a open sesame to a good job and desirable way for adolescents to transition to adulthood." proves this point. He argues that yes getting a education is important but it's not always the best way. The hypothetical example involving a student choosing to go college for business or becoming a electrician. Then giving a example of why he would be probably be better off becoming the electrician rather than going to college to do something he may not be as successful as he could've been if he worked as a electrician helps prove his point. Murray continues to argue that the view about college is flawed that many are better off looking for better options rather than following the crowd and going to college.
When people go to prison, the majority of them do not learn as Malcolm does when he studies in the prison library. Malcolm realizes that “The best thing I could do was to get hold of a dictionary- to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship" (198). This shows how he has an open mind, because despite quitting school, he never loses the interest in learning. Reading dictionaries usually happen in school, but Malcolm X learns to understand words from different ranges of difficulty in prison. He learns to read and write on his own, and even pays more attention to education in prison than he did when he briefly went to school. Prison is what helped Malcolm X prepare for his upcoming life situations. His education in prison is the foundation of how his becoming of a well rounded speaker
In “Prison Studies,” Malcolm X argues that being in prison, he became very knowledgeable. He was proud that he had got of hold of a dictionary to improve his penmanship. He has learned how to read, write, and learned many different word definitions. For instance, Malcolm X states that he couldn’t write in a straight line, read, and didn’t understand what words meant. In addition, Malcolm claims he didn’t know how many word insisted because he was reading the dictionary, and it contained millions of words. He articulates this idea when he states, “I written so much at one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world.” He also believes that going to college has to many distractions. Like for organization such as “ fraternities, panty-raiding, and boola-boola,” doesn’t help student be successful as they should be. He says studying in prison was the best place to learn all his inability to read and write.