“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 …show more content…
In the high criminal neighborhood where the other Wes lived, people who live there need a positive role model or a mentor to lead them to a better future. Usually the older family members are the person they can look up to. The other Wes’s mother was not there when the other Wes felt perplexed about his future and needed her to support and give him advises. Even though the other Wes’s mother moved around and tried to keep the other Wes from bad influences in the neighborhood, still, the other Wes dropped out of school and ended up in the prison. While the author Wes went to the private school every day with his friend Justin; the other Wes tried to skip school with his friend Woody. Moore says, “Wes had no intention of going to school. He was supposed to meet Woody later – they were going to skip school with some friends, stay at Wes’s house, and have a cookout” (59). This example shows that at the time the other Wes was not interested in school. Because Mary was busy at work, trying to support her son’s education, she had no time and energy to look after the other Wes. For this reason, she did not know how the other Wes was doing at school and had no idea that he was escaping school. She missed the opportunities to intervene in her son’s life and put him on the right track. Moreover, when the author was in the military school, the other Wes was dealing drugs to people in the streets and was already the father of a child. The incident that made the other Wes drop out of school was when he had a conflict with a guy. The other Wes was dating with the girl without knowing that she had a boyfriend. One night, her boyfriend found out her relationship with the other Wes and had a fight with him. During the fight, the other Wes chased the guy and shot him. The guy was injured and the other Wes was arrested
The book basically talks about two young boys both with the name Wes Moore, who grew up in Baltimore and in the same neighborhood but never knew of each others existence. This is until the author Wes Moore, the one who escaped his rough childhood in Baltimore and the Bronx, began meeting with the other Wes Moore and questioning him who is spending his life in prison because of attempted murder. The author Wes Moore who managed to escape his situation growing up had a much more supportive mother who moved him away from Baltimore and continued to push him to get an education. He lived in the Bronx for sometime with his grandparents and mother, and attended a well renowned school in the Bronx. His mother worked several jobs in order for him to
1. Briefly describe each of the Wes Moore’s. Include information you believe is important to their life path (community, family life, big decisions, etc.).
The Other Wes Moore was a book written by Wes Moore about two boys who were very similar growing up. They both grew up with out their dad and in a rough lifestyle. The two boys lived in same rough Baltimore neighborhoods with activity going on always. The difference is one grew up to have a successful life and the other is spending the rest of his life lock up as a convicted murderer.
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
Wes had so much support from his loved ones. After Wes’s father passed, his mother couldn 't handle being alone in the house she shared so many memories in without him anymore. So she called her mom, and they arranged to move in with her mom back in New York. Wes not only had his sisters, and mother but he also had his grandparents. Wes had strict rules to follow, he had to be home when the street lights came on, and as soon as he hears any gunfire or anything his grandmother considered foolishness he was to immediately come home. Wes was taught right from wrong, and got in trouble when he did wrong but soon learned from his
People in their lives may confront different challenges, difficulties, and opportunities; their choices and decisions significantly influence their paths in life. Their abilities to making right choices are determined by many factors, including family, neighborhood, education, personal responsibility, age, environment, religion, media, others’ expectations, etc. Even two people, who have identical names, live similar circumstances, they have two different fates. Wes Moore (2011), in his book “The Other Wes Moore,” tells a story of how and why the other Wes Moore and himself had different lives. Even though the author Wes and the other Wes both grew up in Baltimore, their different choices, which were influenced by their families, friendship,
Both Wes’s did not have fathers so they had to rely on their mother to play both roles, or look somewhere else to find that strong father figure. Baltimore Wes looked up to his older brother Tony. Tony had a different father than his younger brother and tried to emulate his actions. He lived in a poor, run down part of Baltimore and Tony loved to hangout down there. Quickly he was sucked into the game. The game, in which, no one makes it out alive. It destroyed his life, his family, and what little ambition he had. Tony was at least smart enough to tell young Wes to not get involved in the kind of business his older brother was running. But seeing him day after day with new shoes, clothing, and accessories, young Wes fell victim to his environment and finally caved in. He quickly became a product of the worst streets in Baltimore. The anger, the savage, the aggression could all be seen through his eyes. Young Wes was not Mary’s son but a son of the damaged streets of
The mothers, Mary and Joy, push their sons to achieve an education in different ways. Mary, Other Wes’s mother, enrolls him in public schools and expects him to take control of his life and work hard. This arrangement does not work favorably; Other Wes stopped attending to school two years before he graduated high school. He eventually received his GED from Job Corps. On the other hand, Wes’s mother, Joy, enrolls her son in private school to avoid the public schools in the area. First, she sends him to Riverdale. Wes hates it there. He got suspended numerous times and let his grades slip. He was in charge of his own fate at Riverdale, but he botched it up. Finally, Joy sends Wes to military school. He is given a second chance, but “by the end of the fourth day at military school, [Wes] had run away four times” (90). Eventually, after an abrupt phone call, he agrees to stay. He embraces military school, and thrives there. He has the chance to escape Other Wes’s fate, which even Wes agree could have been his own. He may have had no choice but to leave to military school, but his success there is up to him. While Wes was sent away to avoid the ghetto’s problems, Other Wes is right at the center of
The Mothers in this book play a large influence in relation to importance of schooling for the two Wes Moore’s. AWM mother, Joy, believed in schooling to the hilt and was obsessed with her children receiving the best possible education out there. She sacrificed a lot for AWM to go to the same school that John F Kennedy went to, Riverdale. She "worked multiple jobs, from a freelance writer for magazines and television to a furriers assistant- whatever she could do to help cover her growing expenses" (Moore 47). This woman clearly cared a lot about school and wanted her son to be the best he could be. She was also a college graduate, and before her, her parents. On the other hand, the OWM mother, Mary, did not get a chance to finish college. Ironically she dropped out of Johns Hopkins. This was because her grant was taken away; this might have had an effect on her because she was nowhere near as obsessed with her children’s education as Joy was. It is heartbreaking because Mary grew up in a rough part of Baltimore and she, "Made a pact with herself at that moment: she would get her education and leave the neighborhood no matter what it took" (...
The Other Wes Moore is a book about two kids who share more than one could expect. They share same name, they grew up in the same neighborhood, they both had a difficult childhood, and they both grew up fatherless, the list goes on. They might have been the same in many ways, but they grew up completely different. One day the author was reading the newspaper that featured him and he came across an article about a planned jewelry store robbery that went wrong. That article featured someone by the name of Wes Moore. The author Wes Moore decided to write the man who was currently serving life in prison. The author thought that he would never get a reply, but he did. Ever since then they have stayed connected and are very good friends. Throughout the book, The Other Wes Moore, the author Wes does a great job at
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
The greatest woman I’ve ever known always told me that education was important…and she was right. I came from a small town in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri prior to becoming a teenager. At the time, education was abundant in St. Ann, where I lived. I attended a decent elementary school and made good grades, despite mathematics not being my cup of tea. I have
Education is a major component in an individual’s future success in today’s society. The traditional model that we are taught to follow is to achieve good grades in High School so that we are able to get accepted to a good college in order to obtain a good high paying job. However, if the major building blocks of our education are somehow hindered by sociological influences, it would be correct to assume that our future success would also be affected. An example of a situation in which sociological aspects impact that education system can be found right here in the city of Lowell. According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household income for the year 2012 was about $51,714 annually compared with the average income throughout Massachusetts which was about $66,658 annually. Additionally in the year 2012, the statistics for the persons below the poverty level was 17.3 percent, significantly higher than Massachusetts average of 11.0 percent. Lowell is known as an urban environment and a city full of many different and diverse types of people. However, the city of Lowell does contain a large population that are, by today’s standards, considered to be living below the poverty line. ("U.S Census Bureau")
“You're mother and father have been at it again.”. Mark was one who had to frequently witness brutal things done to his mom by his own dad. Throughout this little boy's childhood he never had any big supporters. His only motivation was his mother and she was getting beaten for saying he should get an education. “I vowed to never go to school because school was a waste of time.”. With the distractions from the gangs and his dad going against school mark did not know what to believe. Following his mother's word mark left the gangs and joined school. Comparing the lives of Mark and June there was a lot more that Mark had to go through. On Mark's side he had to make up his mind and let himself leave the gangs to go to school while June’s mom made the decision for her to find success but she decided not