Personal Narrative: My Education In High School

My relationship with literacy has been a journey all on its own. From learning how to sound out letters and words, to reading my first sentence , I have developed quite a valuable foundation and platform, that will eventually guide me to success. I have had the pleasure of experiencing a love that just continues to blossom. A love that will never fail, nor will I fail it. This love that I speak of is my passion for reading, writing and literacy as a whole.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold has been challenged three times in school libraries. What is the reason that this book has been challenged? The Lovely Bones is a book about a fourteen-year-old girl telling about her life and death. Susie Salmon was raped and murdered by her neighbor in a structure that the neighbor built in a corn field. She watches down on her world from heaven as everyone copes with her death. Alice Sebold herself was brutally raped as an undergraduate, similar to Susie. Many have challenged this book because its explicit contents such as sexual abuse, violence, false heaven, and sexual contents. This book is also considered “too mature” or inappropriate for children’s understandings and

Children start to love reading at a young age, but when reading textbooks the love for reading slowly starts to deteriorate. Most kids hate to read in school because it’s nothing they are truly interested in when in all reality children need to understand how important reading is. In the essay “My Literacy History” by Dedrick Skinner and “The Lonely Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez he explains how he did not know why reading was so important, but as he grew older he understood its values. I also developed a love for books at young age when my mom began to read to me, but as I grew up I felt reading was a struggle because I didn’t understand its values like Rodriguez. Reading is an important aspect of a child’s life and it’s crucial to a student’s education and most students and parents neglect to see that reading will make a huge impact during their studies as a student.

“I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open” (Alexie 17). This quote, from Sherman Alexie’s “Learning to Read and Write: Superman and Me,” describes a young Indian boy’s ambition to read and write, to be literate. The same ambition I saw in myself when I was learning to read and write. The meaning of literacy, to me, has always been the next step towards success. I searched for success at an early age; looking back, I surprise myself on how quickly I advanced. In my early years of junior high, I stumbled across “The Inheritance” by Louisa May Alcott. This story, said to be Alcott’s first novel written before she was twenty, is about an Italian orphan who works for a rich family, but soon finds out she is the true heir to the family’s

“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had”

how the declining interest in and engagement with reading is causing our society to retrogress, contradictory to many other progressions in our advancing world now. Although to some reading may seem like a universal and timeless activity, the arguments set forth in Gioia’s article dismiss such critics as excessively dogmatic. One of the border notions presented in the essay is that the advanced skill of reading helps create abilities that business leaders look for, and more civically engaged students. Gioia delivers a cogent argument to sway his readers by creating and utilizing an alarming yet informative tone, addressing reasons that attract a universal audience, and by citing reliable and esteemed sources to support the consequences

Many things have affected my life over time. None of them have possibly effected my life more than reading and writing. Everyone knows that reading and writing is important, but for some people it has a bigger impact on their life. I believe reading in particular had a large impact in my life. I don’t know how different my life would be without reading. My interest in reading made school fun for me. It gave me a reason to try in school, and put forth an effort to do my best. My interest in reading when I was younger made me the student that I am today.

I moved to Kansas City, Kansas seven years ago. It all started when I was in 6th grade with these girls. I was a different race then them. They thought it would be cool to mess and try to get rid of the white girl. One day, they decided to try everything they possibly can to get me kicked out. It was the day of gym. There was basketballs and volleyballs. As far as in the corner it could be, there was tetherball. I thought it would be fun to go and join them. Try and make friends, but it was not like that for them. The ball came around to the girls’ side and Boom. My face was bloody as it ever could be. My glasses were thrown off my face, my eyes were starting to bruise and finally, I could barely see out of my eyes. It went on for weeks after weeks.

Growing up I never focused my attention on reading and writing. I found alternate interests in playing video games and bonding with my family. My mother always forced my siblings and I to read three novels every summer, to increase our knowledge, and to expand our imaginations. It wasn’t till later in life where reading became native to me. Every event big or small, helped shape my literacy skills that I’ve achieved through my years of education.

The history of my literacy has been a long road of a frustration and learned lessons. As a child, I was a bit of a loner so reading and writing were the closest thing to a social life for me. The things that I bottled up inside came out through my writing and it became somewhat of a pass time for me. As long I could remember literacy as has been an important value for me in my life because from very young age I got express my true self without being judged by the outside. Even though in my later years I would deal with some heartaches and set back that lead me to give up on my love for reading. I would always come back to my real first love.

“Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy-and gain advantage by it in some way” (Brandt 166). While staring at a blank Word document, re-reading the articles that we discussed in class, and brainstorming for countless hours, I asked myself, what or who was my literary sponsor? In her article, she goes on to state that “sponsors seemed a fitting term for the figures who turned up most typically in people's memories of literacy learning: older relatives, teachers, priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, officers, editors, influential authors” (Brandt 167). From

The doctor chuckled and replied, "I am actually almost done." My mouth felt swollen and bubbly and I could not see his work at all. He removed the tools from my mouth and set them on the counter. I glanced over from the chair and he ambled back over. He was a slightly robust Indian man wearing a white lab coat. When he arrived at my chair, he explained, "I had to put four stitches in your mouth. They will dissolve when the wound is fully healed so you will not have to come back in to get them removed."

Many choices, a lot of responsibilities and nevertheless the consequences. The one thing that jumps out on me when i think about life in the future is that i want to be successful. Its either you 're eager to learn or dumm away with something you 're not interested in. Who i want to be, it 's not going to take two years or so, i probably won 't accomplished who i want to be in such little years i have yet to live, i want to make a difference. Die with my name still living.

My experience as a reader isn 't as extraordinary as many, but I love to read. I had some great teachers throughout my education that taught me to enjoy reading challenge oneself and not be intimidated by it. Through college and today I do not have much time to read, other than school books speech, education ,and reading. Those are the sweet books I know read.

Everyone knows that reading is important, but have you ever asked yourself why is that so? Reading is one of the most beneficial and practical activities that a human being can do. Unfortunately it is a disappointment that people these days read less. As we know, books were the main source of entertainment centuries ago, but with the widespread of technological advances such as the cinema, television, internet, among others, many people left their books on the bookshelf. The purpose of this speech is to present the benefits and the importance of reading. The reasons are that it is through reading that a person is going to be able to discover new ideas, concepts, meet new places and people that time, money or reality sometimes prohibited. It develops your communication tools and expands you knowledge and the conception around you.