The Other Wes Moore Critical Analysis

Asian students perform as well as white students in reading and better than white students in math. Reformers ignore these gains and castigate the public schools for the persistence of the gap. Closing the racial achievement gap has been a major goal of education policy makers for at least the past decade. There has been some progress, but it has been slow and uneven. It isn’t surprising that it’s hard to narrow or close the gap if all groups are improving.

This is also the cause of what we call “achievement gaps”, which is the disparity of academic performance between white students and students of a minority, along with students from low income families and those from higher income families. Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch are two different writers who wrote on similar claims, however, they both had written their pieces with different strategies to convey their arguments. In “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, Jonathon Kozol berates the

Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race.

Children of color are over-represented in single-parent households with fifty-five percent of Black children and thirty-one percent of Hispanic children being raised in a single-parent household. (Vespa). The lessons parents will teach their son or daughter help provide the children with the skills and traits that will prepare them for adulthood. When one parent is missing, more specifically the father, the effect has an everlasting feel to

“The intent behind closing these gaps is to break the connection between race or family income and achievement while at the same time continuing to improve the performance of the top students. ”(28) Gaps between race and wealth have always been issues in schools. Historically, children living in poverty are more likely to score lower on tests than those

There is a Racial Disparity in Advanced Courses In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not legal to keep public schools segregated by race. This was a significant success for minority students, but they still have a long way to go (“...Look…”). In 2015, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data that included a statistic stating that 40% of the enrollment for schools that had gifted programs was Black and Latino students, but only 26% of those students were in the gifted programs (Hsieh). Gary Orfield wrote on a similar topic that “We have become a nation that accepts...unequal [classrooms]” (Orfield).

Summary: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore explores the journey of two men by the same name who grow up in similar neighborhoods, but end up with different endings. The book shares the stories of both men who highlight significant events in their life that led one to be a businessman, while the other a convict in prison for murder without the possibility of parole. When Moore discovers Wes’s story he begins to correspond with him and it is their correspondence that inspired this book. First of all, Part One explains the childhood of the two boys and how both had an absent father. However, Wes loses his father because of a virus that goes undetected by doctors, while the other does not have a father because he chose to leave his child.

Socioeconomic obstacles impede the academic achievement of students. “Hispanics have poverty rates that are two to nearly three times higher than whites; and 40 percent of their population is foreign born” (“Hispanics: Special Education and English Language Learners”). Living in poverty affects educational attainment. There is a gap in the educational outcomes because of socioeconomic status (SES). Moreover, the American Psychological Association (APA) states, “large gaps remain when minority education attainment is compared to that of Caucasian Americans”.

1) I believe that Moore, the author, is trying to say that the second chance is trying to rewrite the first mistake and the last chance could be your last chance. The author’s last chance to stop his drug dealing was when he was sent to military school. His temper against his mother, bad grades, absences from classes and an incident with a smoke bomb were the reasons his mother sent him to military school. (Moore 87) The “other” Wes had the decision to stop selling drugs while raising his family.

Family is key. In the book, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, it is about two boys that grew up in the same area with the same name. The book talks about how one boy becomes a Rhode Scholar and the other is serving life in prison from an armed robbery shooting. The events happen are because of their family and how they influence them. In the book, The Other Wes Moore, the author explores the idea of family to develop the theme of having a supportive family is the difference between being successful and failing your goals.

After reading the book The Other Wes Moore many themes seem to nudge at you to realize many things that happen that you might not notice in everyday life. One of the life lessons that really plays a role in my life is loss, faith, and redemption. Loss. This word can mean different things depending on the person and their experiences. Loss might mean an event that causes immoderate feelings of despondency. To another person, it might be so simple as losing an object that meant a lot to them. These losses can impact the rest of someone 's life. I have experienced this feeling within the last year. My mom has been really sick recently and lots of things have changed even over the past few years, but only a few months ago would it really make the biggest impact in my opinion. In the novel The Other Wes Moore there are two boys named Wes Moore that goes through many struggles through life. One of the Wes Moore’s is now excelling with many recognitions and has become very successful even after all of the struggles he went through. Contrastingly the “other” Wes Moore is now in prison for the rest of his life due to an armed robbery. Before his sentence many things played a role in where he ended up today, including of a loss that would forever change his life.

“This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid. The other will spend everyday until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Moore (xi). The Other Wes Moore shows us how similar their childhoods were but they had two entirely different outcomes in the end. Lets see what some of the similarities and differences in the Wes Moores’ lives pertaining to family and police run-ins of both Wes Moores’ were described in The Other Wes Moore.

What does family mean to you? If you 're like most people, then you most likely believe that we are products of our environment. This idea could not be better represented than the two young boys that this story is about. In “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” written by Wes Moore, two fatherless young boys that grow up with the same name and that live in the same neighborhood couldn 't have taken more different paths in life.

William Shakespeare once said, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." Dating back to Elizabethan Literature, self-identity has always been deemed as essential. Fast forward to modern times, the authors of more contemporary works have taken the same concept of identity but have revealed the way actions taken can influence an individual 's understanding of themselves. For example, in John Howard Griffin 's memoir, Black Like Me and Wes Moore 's memoir, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates were both authors encounter lifestyles of similar individuals. Through both comparable lifestyles, Griffin and Moore display the way work can affect the personal and social identities of individuals who would otherwise appear to be the "same man."

In both cases, poverty and the social environment had a significant effect in the development of the two characters. Overall, throughout the section of The Other Wes Moore, the book discussed the development of the two protagonists and of how their life choices have been affected by society and social influences. Moreover, the mother, a familiar existence, and the distressed environment had the greatest influence on both characters, shaping their beliefs and creating a significant difference