When I was reading Malcom X learning to read I was compelled by this story. I thought to myself that learning has to be wanted by the person, Malcolm X wasn't forced to learn he wanted to learn. It was a motivational story for me of a man who couldn't read or write, but when he entered prison he learned to do so by teaching himself. Malcolm X didn't have higher education he just pushed himself to learn how and taught himself. Sittting in jail made him realize that he has to learn and write so that he could be just as articulate when he was reading and writing as he was in his speaches. So in the end learning has to be wanted by the student, you want to learn for yourself.
When I was reading Moores story of Idiot Nation I think Moore is just critisizing the Americans. Not all Americans have the chance to learn to read some are so poor and don't have money for clothes so they can't go to school. Others in the US are smart and just choose to watch cartoons or spoorts shows. Americans can't just be serious all of the time and watch the discovery channel or the news. That doesn't make the Americans that do that stupid, it just means they need a little bit of fun of watching those kinds of shows. I do see where he is coming from of not challenging ourselves, but if a person comes home from beign serious at work or school all day you need to watch or do something fun. So a person doesn't overload themselves, they need to take a break.
I went last night to hear the Holocaust victim speak about what he went through during that time in his life. Going into the room I thought I was prepared to hear what he had to say. I knew that they used the gas chambers and other things to kill the Jews but I never even heard of some of the things that he said to us. I think it all became to real when he showed us his number on his arm, B5188. I can hear all those horrible things and I felt horrible but it really hit me hard when he showed us that. I couldn't believe the stories he told us like how they would take people make them strip naked, chase them around the cemetary and then shoot them. Some died right on the spot and then others were just bried alive in graves. I feel so horrible for all of those people that died and had to go through that, I don't understand how those people could do the things they did to them. The things were so cruel and tragic that were done to them. It is a miracle that the speaker lived through the terrible ordeal. He is a true survivor and I truely feel sorry for him and all the memories of the past that he will never be able to get rid of.
When I was reading 7 lesson school teacher I never even thought about Gatto being sarcastic in his writing. I just thought that he was a horrible teacher that he thought of kids as numbers and not by their names. Although we learned in class that I was incorrect. Gatto uses sarcasm to get across a point, that the system isn't doing things correctly. If he was a horrible teacher he wouldn't be writing about it and he wouldn't have won some many awards. Gatto exagerates to get his point across in this writing.
I went to labor of love on September 18. It was a great experience for me, I went to the Pittsburgh Food Bank. We were allowed to pick from doing something with potatoes, unpacking food that was donated, or we could pack frozen noodles. I went and I was packing frozen noodle.We had these huge bags of frozen dumplings, we had to take two scoops out of that bag and put it into a littler bag. We put a twist tie on it and then packed them up to be picked up or shipped out to poeple who need it. This experience was a great one, I never knew how good it could feel to help people out by volunteering. I have volunteered before, but at nothing like this before. It felt so good to know that I was helping out people less fortunate than myself.
Why doesn't Gatto teach what he wants when he wants? He should get in all the criteria that the school wants him to teach, but he can teach it when he wants. By teaching the subject or activity when he wants he can try and relate the topics together.