Malcolm X: Learning to Read and the Importance of Literacy

As times have allowed for improvement in technology and society, also has the demand for literacy. Being literate may require some to overcome certain obstacles, but will certainly bring many benefits to the individual. For example, numeracy skills can prepare an individual to be functional in contributing to society with engineering projects. It can also allow for honesty and the use of the power of knowledge to train others. It can change the way an individual is viewed in a society as well as the way that individual contributes to the society productively, whether it’s by being able to work machines in a factory, or being employed and assisting the economy in its growth. In Malcolm X learning to read summary paper some examples show how literacy can impact the traits listed above.

Malcolm Little is known for being a great speaker. In order for him to reach that persona, he had to cross one big obstacle, and that was learning to read. He received motivation, took steps on learning to read the right way and overall, gained benefits out of it. Malcolm Little received external motivation, not from inmates or family but from himself and black history. His first self-motivation to learn to read was that he knew what he wanted to say, but he just had no way of putting it into words. “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote”. Reading helps with putting words in the right place, and that’s exactly what Malcolm Little realized after he improved his literature. Becoming good at anything takes time and it should be done in steps. The first step is always the hardest but it can be the most rewarding. “In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on the first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I’d written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting”. It was a hard obstacle for him to overcome, as not many people enjoy or even think about copying the dictionary. Second, he also took the step of repetition. “I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area where I would read for another fifty-eight minute. I went on until three or four every morning”. Mastering a skill can be done with repetition; Malcolm Little took advantage of the guard's wide intervals of checkup. The befits that Malcolm Little received were immense for him. It helped him grow in character and life. First, he felt a lift on his ego and self-pride. Malcolm Little mentions how “an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books. They were almost celebrities”. The way that Malcolm Little would explain those inmates displays his wide-eyed view towards them, and the desire to be like them. Last but not least, his last benefit is truly immense. Malcolm Little mentioned, “Reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive”. Malcolm Little overcame the hard obstacle and became a man that was able to change people’s minds and emotions.

To conclude learning to read Malcolm X summary, even though being literate may require some to overcome obstacles, it will bring many benefits to the individual. For example, numeracy skills can prepare an individual to be functional in contributing to society with engineering projects, it can allow for honesty and use the power of knowledge to train others, it can change the way an individual is viewed in a society as well as the way that individual contributes to the society productively, whether it’s by being able to work machines in a factory, or being employed and assisting the economy in its growth. Being literate is a skill that is built upon not only with good school but also with the desire to expand in knowledge during one's everyday life.

Work Cited

• Brandt, Deborah. Drafting U.S. Literacy, College English, Vol. 66 No. 5, National Council of Teachers of English, May 2004, www.jstor.org/stable/4140731
• Berkes, Anna. A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, 2009 April.
• Understanding of Literacy. UNESCO.
• Wilson T. Wilson, Literacy and Its Significance in Modern Life, Colleagues: Vol. 13: Iss. I, Article 5.
• X, Malcolm. Learning To Read, Alex Haley. New York: Grove Press, 1965. Print