Fletcher 1 James Fletcher English 1A M.

Mushik Reading Response 2: Learning to Read By Frederick Douglas Frederick Douglas describes his childhood as a slave, where he was nearly taught to ready by his masters. He learned the alphabet, and immediately afterwards was barred from receiving instruction from his masters wife by his master. The reason for this was that if he learned to read they believed he would rebel against his servitude. This belief was sound, because he goes on to describe how he tricked young school boys to teach him to read and write, and thusly learned of the freedoms he was restricted from. He educated himself and eventually won his way to freedom, and presented an idyllic case of how African Americans were in fact equal to white people. I believe the most important thing learned from Douglas story was how the simple ability to read changed his life. Reading is an important ability in this modern world, because it allows us to transfer knowledge. It relays information more reliably then word of mouth, and can be spread quickly like a newspaper. The deciding factor in the quality of Douglas life was determined by his ability to read and write, if he had never learned to do so, he would have likely died a slave. This is what his story should be taken to mean: that the difference between a life of freedom and a life of servitude, is decided by ones knowledge. Education is My Mother and My Father David Chanoff Chanoffs story is about refugees from war in Africa coming to the United States to be granted citizenship and education. The refugees are called the Lost Boys and consist primarily

Fletcher 2 of men, most of which lost their parents at a very young age. They came from small tribes and areas where technology and modern thinking had yet to reach, where one was born into a cattle raising family and thusly raised cattle for the rest of their lives. The boys received an education and learned that there were many more options for them to take, and learned to appreciate learning in of itself. They came to the United States and summarily had to re-learn most of what they were taught, but many proceeded to earn an education and successfully attend some of the most prestigious schools in the U.S. This story is more about how lives were changed through trials and hardships, but were overcome in the name of education. These boys came from a different land, one that was stuck in a previous era, and adapted quickly in order to survive. They learned a new language, had to study things that to them were simple theories, such as washing a rug, which they had never seen. They took this knowledge with them to the U.S. and once again had to adapt it to a world they had never imagined in their past lives. Their education was what helped them survive all their ordeals.