In college, young adults are meant to expand beyond their perceptions of their “suburbia” and grow into citizens of the ever changing world. For myself, the world was experienced very young so going to an HBCU wasn’t technically growing, but to my surprise there was much to learn. At the age of ten, I was a new student to the African-American culture but nearly ten years later the lesson has switched. Now I see the world from the suburban hill tops. As an effect of coming down to Earth, lost my perception of the world. Taking English-102 opened the door for me to once again take the global view. Before I am able to vastly look at the world, I must look deeper into myself to find who I am. If the world was not watching who would I be instead. …show more content…
When growing up looking forward to the future is crucial. Though mottos like YOLO (You only live once) circulate through the youth, young adults must take responsibility in our future as the prospected adults. A perception of responsibility was taught early in the semester. The lesson was introduced through a short story called “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. Originally, the story was targeted toward the young adults of a past generation but the message is, and always will be, timeless. With each generation the youth, especially the African American youth, are becoming more and more subjected to the media. This dependence on futile knowledge, limits the growth of our future. I am a witness to this trend. Social media is considered their entire world. That small 5x2 inch device is their entire existence. At least in the “The Lesson” the children had a small ghetto the size of a block or two. The children of the story might be younger and coming from a different background than some college students, they perfectly mirror our generation. It is much easier to live in our respected corners, where you are safe, than venturing out into the unknown. Thanks to this story, I now understand the need to be Sylvia. It goes back to the need for responsibility. The next generation must have a strong role model to drive them to fight and desire to bring “Moore” to the world. It all starts and ends at home. In our time “home”, young adults must teach and inspire the youth. This was clear in the poem titled “At My Father’s House” by Nancy Travis. Thanks to this story, I no longer see going home as a time to go back to my adolescent state, but rather as a refresher or reminder of my homage. For soon I will be using my college experiences and my upbringings to continue my family’s legacy. Its fine to go home and relive the comfortable life of suburbia but the house of comfort is no longer ours. We are just visitors--teachers
The negative attitude and bitterness makes Sylvia unreliable, she is prejudice against Miss Moore because she prevents Sylvia and the other children from having fun, which seems to be the only thing that matters to Sylvia. Sylvia states, “I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree. I’d much rather go to the pool or to the show where it’s cool” (Bambara, 209). Sylvia is still young and naïve, so she doesn’t view getting an education as something she wants to do, she just wants to have fun and not learn anything but she eventually realizes that Miss Moore just wants her and the other children to
The short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is about Sylvia and her friends. Sylvia is the narrator in the story; Sylvia is a black girl who grows up in Harlem. She talks about how a women name miss Moore moves down on her block. Miss Moore is an educated woman who always dresses up properly and she’s “black as hell.” She always volunteers to take Sylvia and her cousin Sugar to educational events. People in the neighborhood thought that Miss Moore was weird but saw the opportunities for their kids. So they let their kids go with her, but Sylvia weren’t learning, on the opposite she was taking advantage of Miss Moore. One day while Miss Moore was taking caring of the kids, she started to quiz them on arithmetic. Kids started begging her
Developing character is something that comes with time. I believe that there are three major things that effect how people develop their character—where they are from, which includes their financial status; how they are raised; and the character of the people that have had the most influence on their lives. Sylvia, in Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson," is very much influenced by all of these factors. Sylvia’s living in the slums and being poor makes her defensive and judgmental. Her parents not being around much leaves her without the attention and discipline that children need to develop to their fullest. Lastly, her friends and Miss Moore also have a great influence on how Sylvia thinks and acts, and lead Sylvia to be observant but also angry and stubborn. All of these characteristics not only determine Sylvia’s personality, but also are the basis for why I think Sylvia will not apply Miss Moore’s lesson.
Miss Moore lives in the same neighborhood as her students, yet she tries to teach them lessons that shows her wealth compared to theirs. What she is showing them is that no matter where they come from they can go out and get a good education and they can make something out of themselves one day. Cartwright wrote “Implicitly, the children do not simply need to learn one lesson: they need an education.” (507) The children think that Miss Moore is just telling them useless information when they are at the toy store about how much each item cost, when in reality she is trying to teach the children how the ‘real world’ works and how they are going to have to get a good education so they will be able to go out and buy the stuff that they
Throughout history knowledge, culture and information has been passed down within communities. Life lesson were often taught by older, wiser or formally educated people within the community. This idea still holds true today, especially in low-income communities as illustrated in the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. I am led to believe that story took place in a low-income community in the early to mid-sixties as African-American families moved to find better opportunities, when extended families moved north as groups and then spreading out into their respective community (507). Miss Moore, who had obtained a college education, assumed this role within her community by saying “it was only right that she should take responsibility
...ow I would feel the same way if I were Sylvia. After spending the day looking at how the other half live, I would strive to become a self-made individual. I feel that is what the author is trying to accomplish in her story. She wants it to be known that you can become anything you want with a little bit of motivation, and that’s what Ms. Moore did when she took the kids to the toyshop. She gave Sylvia the motivation and drive to strive for something better then what she had. There are several different emotions and routes that Sylvia or anyone could have felt after her experience, and what she chose was to be angry. Her anger will drive her to accomplish her goals. “The Lesson”, will have several different meanings for different people, but what I took away from this story is that if you weren’t born with it you can still obtain it even if society is against you.
To begin, Sylvia’s rancor towards Miss Moore displays the bitterness society has already implanted into Sylvia’s brain. The children of the neighborhood despised Miss Moore for attempting to act as though her social status and race did not trouble her. “This lady
To begin with, the reader gets a sense of Sylvia's personality in the beginning of the story as she talks about Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not the typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well. She has climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She is a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. Sylvia's opinion of her is not one of fondness. She says that she hates Miss Moore as much as the "winos who pissed on our handball walls and stand up on our hallways and stairs so you couldn't halfway play hide and seek without a god damn mask”(357). By comparing the hatred with something she enjoys, we get to see what a child does in the slums for amusement. Sylvia feels t...
To begin with, Miss Moore, Sylvia, and the other children are from the “slums”. However, what differentiate Miss Moore and everyone else in the neighborhood is that she has a college education, and speaks Standard English. As a result, Miss Moore plays the role as teacher to the neighborhood children. Most of the children from the neighborhood were poverty stricken and had a ghetto vernacular. Especially, Sylvia, who mouth is atrocious and has a strong animosity towards Miss Moore. For instance,“Miss Moore was her name. The only woman on the block with no first name. And she was black as hell, cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky.” Moreover, Miss Moore has high expectations of the children, so she takes them on a trip outside the hood to unveil the real world. Before going on the trip to the toy store Miss Moore tried to explain the value of money to the children. For example, “So we heading down the street and she’s boring us silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money ain’t divided up right in this country.” At first, Sylvia is t...
“Social media, a web-based and mobile technology, has turned communication into a social dialogue, and dominates the younger generation and their culture. As of 2010, Generation Y now outnumbers Baby Boomers, and 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network” (Qualman 1). Social media now accounts for the number one use of the Internet, and this percentage is rising bigger every day (Qualman). As a consequence, people are becoming more reliant on social media, which has a led to a number of advantageous as well as unfavorable effects. The world is more connected today than it has ever been in the past, and this is all because of growth in technology. What has yet to be determined though
“Social media has also created an exciting outlet for the people to see news and stay updated on current events in the world” ("Are Social Networking Sites”). The majority of the media broadcast the troubles and trials the United States has and to some extent people could get ideas from the bad broadcast and could do the same things. Maybe if the media could limit the broadcast of bombings, gun shootings, killing police officers, and much more, all of it would gradually disappear. This report describes the impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families. The author, O’Keeffe, presents the benefits of children and adolescents using social media; he also presents the rise of youth using social media.
...ila. "Youth And The (Potential) Power Of Social Media."Youth Studies Australia 32.3 (2013): 69. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.v
We live in a world that has become addicted and dedicated toward social media and it is driving America’s youth into the ground. Teenagers and adults are so wrapped up in social media that is runs their lives every day. Constantly people are checking their phones for the latest on social networks. They have to see pictures, tweets, statuses, comments, likes, and the list goes on and on. Social media is becoming the focus point in the modern American society that it is beginning to control people’s social skills, communication skills, and their livelihood.
The correlation between the development of youth and social media has become blatant. Although few of the consequences are favorable, the majority have displayed a negative impact. The drive social media can implement on youth is exceptional. The pressure and strain social media can place on our youth is an enduring force which leads individuals to question themselves as a person and feel inclined to fit a norm expressed in media and social media of our society. The underlying force social media can play in the lives of the youth is astonishing and is a force that must be dealt with and controlled, for it not only holds the power to give an individual strength, but also to break them down.
In the twenty -first century, teenagers live in a life of social networking and life’s online. It’s hard to believe how much the world has changed over the decades, especially in technology. Technology helps people to contact relatives and friends from long distance more easily and conveniently. People can now talk to each other from everywhere in the world simply through chat and video calls. By time, internet connections have spread throughout households and social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram has increased gradually. However, the internet and several modern technologies have wasted many times and has hurt the society. Social media plays such a big role in people’s lives that some people couldn’t even imagine