The author Jamaica Kincaid, through this passage from Annie John, provides a commentary on the lack of accounting for the individuality of students in the educational system. Each student is different: learning, growing, and developing as an individual at their own rates. As this essay demonstrates, Kincaid argues that the educational system should account for this individuality and be wary of forcing students into one specific role or experience. This passage describes the usual activities of the girls in Annie John’s form at their extra long recess. It follows a relatively long section describing Annie John’s day at school, which seems typically dull--spending the mornings between geometry, physics, and history classes. The passage about …show more content…
Many of the sentences in the passage are lengthy, almost run on sentences. This was most likely intended to create the effect of a child talking about their memories. Children often ramble with no clear stopping point to their sentences. The syntax in Annie John attempts to mimic this, as often Annie John is recalling memories from her childhood. The specific memory in the passage is retold while Annie John is a teenager, but the childlike rambling is still present. The sentence “In this game...to the other” (Kincaid 79), is a fairly long sentence that uses descriptive dependent clauses to fully describe the game in detail. The use of this level of description, and therefore the length of the sentence, showcases the excitement this activity brought to young Annie John. She looks upon this memory with fondness making the mood of the passage positive and joyful. This further instates that it was important for the students to have this time of singing and dancing as kids, even if they could have gotten in trouble for it. The tone of the passage is also positive, meaning Kincaid also believes that it is important to kids to have time to be kids like this and looks upon that time in a positive
In conclusion, in Conley’s memoir he focuses on his experience of switching schools, while in the third grade, from a predominantly African American and Latino school to a predominantly caucasian elementary school. His memoir focuses on the differences in his experiences at each school and how race and class further separated the similarities between his two schools. Conley focuses equally on race and class and how they both influenced and shaped his life, but class was the primary influence on Conley’s
The film reflects the class difference from beginning through the end, especially between Annie and Helen. Annie is a single woman in her late 30s without saving or boyfriend. She had a terrible failure in her bakery shop, which leads her to work as a sale clerk in a jewelry store. When Annie arrived Lillian’s engagement party,
Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.
The selected passage from Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy: A Novel emphasizes an explicit conflict between the narrator’s immediate and expected joy over being able to experience relative luxury for the first time against the implicit force of her inner schock and realization of her past situation as it ties into and shapes her identity and perspective of the world at large. The first paragraph details the specifics of her past situation through direct thoughts of the reader and her way of describing the luxury she’s in as presented through slightly clumsy, almost uncomfortable syntax, whether she “got into an elevator, some [she] had never done before,” (1-2) or when she was “eating food just taken from a refrigerator.” (3) She says that the experience in the apartment, compared to her home, “was such a good idea that [she] would grow used to it and like it very much.”
We are given the feeling of being in an idyllic, rural world. She enhances this feeling with little vignettes that are almost cliched in their banality: the little boys guarding their pile of stones in the town square; the towns-people gathering and interacting with each other as if they were at a country fair; Mrs. Hutchinson arriving late because she hadn't finished the dishes; even the good-natured complaining of Old Man Warner. All of these scenes and vignettes are used effectively to put us at our ease and to distract us from the horror that is to come.
How imperative is it that one pursues a traditional college experience? Although it might appear that Charles Murray and Liz Addison are in agreement that the traditional college experience is not necessary for everyone, Addison provides a more convincing argument that higher education is necessary in some form. This is seen through Addison’s arguments that college is essential to growing up, that education is proportional to the life one lives, and that community college reinvents the traditional college experience. Not only does Addison have her own opinions about college, but Murray does as well.
This big distance in between her and her family took her to relay in something else that could give her pleasure and joy, this were all the boys that she had been with. Expending time with boys gave her a sense of happiness, where she would daydream about them all day long. An example of this is when Oats says: “Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she has been with the night before and how nice had been” (p.439). For Connie, the boys were the ones that disconnected her from her family, they were a way of escape since it was not that pleasant to be around her family.
Imagine a society where education isn’t entirely dependent upon the merits of one’s personal knowledge. Where the learning environment is utilized for personal development and growth rather than competition and separation. A sanctuary composed of unity and equity among peers. A place where college isn’t the only goal, but rather personal identity and initiative are established along the way. Such a society, fully embodies Baldwin’s ideology regarding education, and the prejudices therein. In his speech, “A Talk to Teachers” Baldwin delivers a compelling argument, in which he criticizes the problems and prejudices within the educational system in his day. However, through his sagacious philosophies and eye-opening opinions, Baldwin manifests the cruel, unspoken truth within his speech, that the hindrances and prejudices experienced in his day are still existent in 2016.
Thought provoking and startling, the movie “Learning Curve” awakened in us, as viewers, the uncomfortable reality of where our society and the educational system as a whole are clearly at odds. Mr. Walmsley was hired to substitute at an inner city high school where the same problems that we find today in many schools were brought to an unbelievable level of surreal chaos. The same problems that we witness everyday in our schools were present in this movie, but with an intensity and boldness that would shake the foundation of most well-meaning educators. Problems of student apathy, lack of parental involvement and teacher support, as well as financial constraints plagued this inner city school in much the same way that it does our own schools. However, Mr. Walmsley chose to demand respect and prove to the students that not only was he of value and worthy of their respect, but they should place higher value on themselves as well as others. He demonstrated in a succinct way that learning would take place even at the expense of traditional methods of teaching.
Diversity among students including differences in culture, language and socioeconomic stance is not a new trend. The difference, however, is that today, the school system realizes that all students, including those who differ in some way from the "average" student, or those “at-risk” must be provided with an equal, opportune education (Morris, 1991).
It is a serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seem subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of importance to take place.... ... middle of paper ...
She sees her life as movie being played in front of her as they pass the school, the fields of grain, and the setting sun. Children at play reminds her of her own childhood, being energetic and full of life; the grains suggest harvest time (growing, being productive, ripe), adulthood; and she gazes at them as if there is something that she missed or didn’t do at that time of her life, a time she should have enjoyed.
From the reading by Marzano, (2004) I learned that poverty and social status in society plays an essential role in determining the types of experiences a student will encounter in their life. This type of stigma can affect the student’s academic success, how they learn new information and even their occupation later in life. (Marzano, 2004) We know this is true, but how much though do we really put into it and change our teaching styles to help students acquire new information. As teachers, we need to help students acquire necessary background knowledge through various strategies for learning new material. After the readings, I realize even more that I must always be diligent in knowing the diverse backgrounds in my classroom and that all students have not had the same experiences in life, nor are they at the same knowledge level as other students. (Marzano, 2004) This is an important factor to consider when making lesson plans.
The curriculum taught in schools has a huge effect on a developing person’s identity. Through schooling we tend to call into question the things that we believed to be true as children....
In recent years, a discussion regarding education has increasingly emphasized teachers’ role in promoting student academic growth through personalism. Phillippo explains personalism as, policies that ask teachers’ to develop individual relationship with students at a professional level for student achievement (Phillippo, p. 441). Urban school districts have promoted these policies by converting large schools into smaller schools. Research on student-teacher relationships for the most part support policies of personalism (Phillippo, p. 441). Students who have a professional relationship with their teachers tend to be more successful in school. Phillippo’s study was based off of high school students, but notes that it can extend beyond the high