Leonie C.R. Smith once stated that, "My education whatever shape it took, would be a lifelong process and would become a tool with which I could do the necessary activist work in my community."
How often do we hear about a family whose mother and father did not stress the importance of education to their kids and in turn the children never worked hard to be successful academically? I'm sure many times, because that is typically how it works. If a child sees their parents not caring about their education and they are supposed to be their role models, why should they be so inclined to follow a different path? They shouldn't, but there always are those few exceptions of kids who see one thing from their parents and realize that that is not what they want for themselves, and strive for something better. In Smith’s story she grew up with education being her number one focus. Her grandmother was illiterate and her parents couldn’t finish their education, but she knew that she wanted better for herself. She worked hard in school in Antigua and later left her country and headed for the United States. She struggled when she arrived to the U.S., but she did not let that stop her. She worked harder than she had ever had to before, so that she could come out on top and have a success story that too many African Americans have. I believe that education should always come first because that is one of the few things that people cannot take away from you. As a minority we should look around at our people and decide if we like what we see. If we don’t and we shouldn’t we should change it, and make a new name for ourselves, so that we are not always thought as the ones who never finish what they start, or aren’t going to have any education higher than a high school diploma. We should come together and fight these stereotypes. As Smith said, “an education is a lifelong process” and it is, but it is one process that we should all have no matter what race, gender, socioeconomic class, or religion we are.
-Penelope Drumming
You make a very good point. Children need to see education and literacy emphasized in their life in order to want to attain it for themselves. In the case of the few children who persue education even when their parents do not, I think they still have someone motivating them to acheive. It may be another family member, friend, or a teacher but every child needs someone to encourage them.
ReplyDelete-Sarita smith
Ditto in regards to Sarita Smith above me and Penelope Drumming. If from our youths our parents never instilled in us the importance of being literate, the chances are one will NOT grow up to be literate. They must take it upon themselves to "look around at our people and decide if we like what we see."
ReplyDelete(Ditto in regards to Sarita Smith above me and Penelope Drumming. If from our youths our parents never instilled in us the importance of being literate, the chances are one will NOT grow up to be literate. They must take it upon themselves to "look around at our people and decide if we like what we see.")
ReplyDelete- Ashley Sims