Too often, students are taught that their lives are defined by who they are and what they do, not by circumstances. But circumstances can be very crucial to determining how a person’s life is shaped. It’s no secret that not all schools and neighborhoods are created equal. Some schools offer advanced classes, and college prep, and opportunities, while some schools don’t even have textbooks. Even within the circumstances, there are circumstances. The students in the latter school that lacks textbooks may have parents who go the extra mile to ensure that they have more opportunities, or could have parents who don’t have the resources to do that. Environment and circumstance can make a huge difference, and Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore is a fantastic …show more content…
The biggest difference here is that author Wes made it out. Incarcerated Wes moved out of that neighborhood as well, but was still in urban Maryland. He lived in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, with all sorts of various social pressures. Wes was raised almost by his neighborhood, in a world where violence is normalized and there was no room for conflict resolution or proper coping mechanisms. An example of this is an incident when Wes was a teenager playing football with his friends and some neighborhood kids. Wes got a little too aggressive and one of the other boys didn’t like it. He demanded that Wes stop pushing him. When Wes didn’t, he punched him in the face. As revenge, Wes went to his house, picked up a knife and went after the boy. He was arrested before reaching the boy. Had he learned how to properly deescalate a situation and handle his aggression, his immediate reaction would not have been to resort to violence. Wes Moore, the author, moved to the Bronx, during the rise of drug addiction and gang violence. He has even described it as a “once-proud neighborhood [that has] become synonymous with the collapse of the American inner city.” (Moore, 43). Wes almost immediately made friends in this new neighborhood, over a love of basketball. Wes has been able to use basketball as his outlet, and, besides some bouts with vandalism and his suspension, it has kept him out of trouble. His neighborhood and environment could’ve very well brought him down, but his family and his education is what kept him
Pashtana said she would rather die than not go to school and acted on her words. Her education is limited and she doesn’t have all the recourses to make school easier, yet she still loves and wants all the knowledge she can get. While I sit in my three story private school, a clean uniform free of holes or loose seams, my macbook air in my lap, the smell of cookies rising up from the cafeteria, wishing to be anywhere else but there. No one has beat me because I want to go to school, no one has forced me into a marriage, I’ve never put my life in jeopardy for the sake of education. Pashtana’s life and choices made me take a moment to stop and reflect on my own life and how fortunate I am to have what I have.
The Other Wes Moore is a book talking about two different men with the same name,Wes Moore. They were both raised up by a single mother and live in the same decaying city, Baltimore, where there are surrounded by drug and alcohol. However, the author Wes Moore’s parents completed their education and have a good job while his grandparents also were well-educated. But the other Wes Moore’s parents didn’t graduate from college, his mother tried to get the scholarship but failed, and his father left high school and don’t have a job either. This two Wes Moores both grew up with their mother. The author Wes’s father died for disease while the other Wes’s father left his family. With this situation, they went to the same direction, being absent from
“The state of Maryland had one of the highest graduation rates in the nation. Seventy-six percent of high school students who began high school in Maryland completed. In Baltimore County, the number was as high as 85 percent in some years. But in Baltimore City, where Northern High School was located, it was a dismal 38 percent” (Moore 108). In other words, on average, people who live in Baltimore City have a much lower education level than people who live in other cities. With these low high school graduation rates, people who live there have no motivation to succeed. This is how the author describes the education level of his neighborhood in the book The Other Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, is a book about two boys who have
As Pollock states, “Equity efforts treat all young people as equally and infinitely valuable” (202). This book has made me realize that first and foremost: We must get to know each of our students on a personal level. Every student has been shaped by their own personal life experiences. We must take this into consideration for all situations. In life, I have learned that there is a reason why people act the way that they do. When people seem to have a “chip on their shoulder”, they have usually faced many hardships in life. “The goal of all such questions is deeper learning about real, respected lives: to encourage educators to learn more about (and build on) young people’s experiences in various communities, to consider their own such experiences, to avoid any premature assumptions about a young person’s “cultural practices,” and to consider their own reactions to young people as extremely consequential.” (3995) was also another excerpt from the book that was extremely powerful for me. Everyone wants to be heard and understood. I feel that I owe it to each of my students to know their stories and help them navigate through the hard times. On the other hand, even though a student seems like he/she has it all together, I shouldn’t just assume that they do. I must be sure that these students are receiving the attention and tools needed to succeed,
In “The Other Wes Moore”, by Wes Moore, the author takes the readers through his life growing up as well as the life of someone who was a stranger to him during his childhood but turned out to be a huge part of his life later on. His name was also Wes Moore and both he and the author grew up in poverty and did not have the best childhood. Although they grew up similarly, their adulthoods were the polar opposite. The author Wes Moore became the top in his class, a Rhodes scholar, and studied at Oxford University to later become very successful. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore is in prison for the rest of his life for a robbery and murder. How did these two grow up so similarly, yet had completely different adulthoods?
In a person’s life, one must overcome obstacles that have the potential to either negatively or positively impact their future. Whether it is a serious obstacle, such as being involved with drugs, or a minor obstacle, such as procrastinating an important essay for the night before it is due, the choices people make can influence the way they live their lives. In Wes Moore’s inspiring non-fiction book, The Other Wes Moore, two boys with the same name start off living a few blocks away from one another, but turn out to be completely different individuals. At first, they were both troublemakers, getting in trouble with the law. However, as time progressed, the author, Wes Moore, became a Rhodes scholar and quite successful, while the other Wes Moore was sentenced to life in prison. The difference between these two men was the surrounding influences that shaped their growth as people. In a person’s growth, the most important factors are a positive role model in a positive environment because a positive role model will provide the path to success and will aid that person in achieving prosperity.
The story of two men growing up in the same neighborhood with similar backgrounds with the same name and eerily similar circumstances that leads and ultimately has each character ending up in very different places in life. Taking completely different paths to their futures is the setting of this story “The Other Wes Moore”. The way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does undoubtedly play a huge role in the type of person they will become in life. The author Wes does a good job of allowing you the ability to read this story and the circumstances surrounding the character his mother joy played such an important role in his success, while comparing the roll of Mary the other Wes’s mother. Both boys grew up with strong, hardworking black women in their lives and yet it still allowed for two completely different journeys. I think the lack of fathers and having not so good male role models was also a contributing factor.
In “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” written by Wes Moore the author writes about two boys growing up in Baltimore that share the same name and similar backgrounds but end up taking drastically different paths in life due to many varying factors. The author goes on to earn a college degree, become a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran and more while the “other” Wes cannot avoid the inevitable fate of dealing drugs and ultimately spends his life running from the police and in prison. This reflects how both Wes Moore’s became products of their environment as the way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does unquestionably play a large role in the type of person they will become as adults. A lot of elements come into play that help to determine a person’s success or failure, but at the end of the day the most important factors are family, education and opportunities.
Throughout the book, The Other Wes Moore we learned about the lives of two young kids who unexpectedly share the same name but like everyone else have totally different life’s. This book explores the concepts that deal with a person’s path in life and gives us an understanding of which factors are the ones that greatly influence the type of person we will become. I believe that the factors that have a bigger impact on our life paths are; the environment we live in, our family and friends.
Why have the two boys, with the same name and grew up fatherless in the similar poverty-stricken neighborhoods, developed into two dramatically different individuals: a Rhodes Scholar and a convicted inmate? While the book The Other Wes Moore goes to great length to answer the question profoundly, I also mull over just how and why the two Wes Moores have chosen their own paths to the opposed destines. According to the book, environment, family, education, others’ expectation, and opportunities are the primary factors contributing to the two Wes Moores’ failure and success. On the top of those factors, I find that the role models, the supports of their mothers, and the choices they made are surely worth
“I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances” (Moore 67). This is a powerfully central theme to the book The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore. For the two men this book is about, it all begins with a wide-open future. The mothers that gave birth to them and the influences they had, along with their own powerful choices, sealed their fate . People don’t ever stop growing or improving and the two Wes Moore’s are no different. Throughout their lives, they are constantly changing and in some places calling the shots. One chose correctly, and one did not.
In chapter 5 of The other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, both protagonist are encountered with being taken out of their environment. In the 5th chapter the author Wes was sent to military school and the other Wes is arrested after shooting a “jump off's cousin”(105-106). For Wes being taken out of his loose Bronx environment and being put into a strict military environment drove him crazy. The insanity Wes faced can be attributed to the apparent structure the military school had, unlike the Bronx. Like the title of chapter 5 both Wes and the other Wes are lost beyond belief, although they are both lost they both have an opportunity to grow from an change in environment.
The documentary “Dropout Nation” shows how difficult it is for students who live in poorer communities to receive a good education and graduate high school. Students and teachers are interviewed in this documentary to show that these students are intelligent but are not able to graduate due to their circumstances. These examples help explain the concepts learned in chapter 10 about social institutions and how it is affected by politics, education, and religion.
Robinson, Lori S, and Jimmie Briggs “Kids and Violence” Emerge November. 1993:44+ Seifert, Kathryn. A.
“I never thought I would attend college after skipping so many classes in high school; an event happened that made me determined to go to college.” Nancy Cai, my cousin, stared up at the high building when it hit her that she had finally met her goal in life. Struggling to get through high school, she did not even consider college as her next step in life. Nancy was hopeless, tired, and wanting to drop-out of high school. She was always skipping classes and missing school. Day by day, it became a normal routine. Until one day, when she was going to skip class to go to Central Park, her teacher caught her skipping school.