Review Of The Readings On The Value Of Education
For my third reading log, I will be discussing my reactions to the three readings I had for this weekend. I would like to address the first reading “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose. In the reading, Mike Rose discussed the poor educators he had while he was at school. He also talked about how he had a teacher that pushed his whole class to do work and not to fall behind. I can relate to this pattern specifically my experiences in the Math classes I took in high school. For the first two years, I had easygoing teachers who did not put much effort into teaching the class and allows many students fool around. It wasn’t until my last two years of high school that I got teachers that cared for the material. These teachers pushed me and the rest of my classmates to work hard and they would give us tests and quizzes to make sure we understood the material. This is exactly like what Mike Rose experienced at school: we both received teachers that motivated us to learn and to strive for success rather than lay back and do nothing in class. This allowed me to become a better student and taught me that understanding the class material is very important.
The second reading “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose made me think about my parents. Both my parents work a lot especially my father who liked Mike’s mother worked at a restaurant (Rose). I witnessed how hard it was for my father: he worked at two restaurants for long hours and learned how to manage his time and how to adapt to his surroundings. One day, my father told me to keep going to school and work hard because he does not want me to follow in his footsteps. My father wants me to give myself a better life than he gave me. This conversation motivated me to pursue a higher education. It taught me to keep persisting and to give my all in every assignment at school. I also learned that education is very important and is essential to one’s life.
The last reading “Learning to Read” had the author Malcolm X discuss how he successfully taught himself how to read and write and how it expanded his knowledge of the outside world. When I read this, I concluded that everyone has the potential of being smart and that everyone can learn how read and write no matter what situation they are in. It reminded me of my mother going to trade school to expand her mind about medicine. Like Malcolm X, I witnessed my mother putting in long hours to learn the material. Soon my mother was at the top of her class and was receiving good scores on tests. This taught me that a person can learn and be smart if they work hard for it. This motivated me to put more effort into my studies than the rest of my classmates.
In conclusion, these readings taught me the value of education: it is beneficial to one’s own being and that working hard for it can lead to success and a better life. Because of own experiences, I value my education and hope to be successful.
