Baldwin Response

Annotation of Jame Baldwin 

• “But children are very different. Children not yet aware that is dangerous to look too deeply at anything, look at everything, look at each other, and draw their own conclusions. They don’t have the vocabulary to express what they see, and we, their elders, know how to intimidate them very easily and very soon”(Paragraph 1, Page 2). Baldwin is trying to tell us that children’s are not aware of what goes around the world because we as the adults don’t actually tell the truth of the world being cruel and that what ever the adults says the children believe it because they are to young to understand the reality of world.
• “Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time. Everyone in this room is in one way or another aware of that. We are in a revolutionary situation, no matter how unpopular that word has become in this country”(Paragraph 1, Page 1). What is trying to says that we live in world where danger can come anytime whether its day or night when ever and we may never when its going to hit us because at first it will normal day and the next chaos can happen and no matter what the situation maybe we are always aware of it.
• “The paradox of education is precisely this-that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (Paragraph 2, Page 1). Baldwin is trying to tell us that children are pressured to do the opposite when it comes to their education which is whatever the adults says about the world is what goes and that whatever they said about the world is true and you have to believe that even and because of this the children can’t be allowed to think differently about the world.
• “Since I am talking to school teachers and I am not a teacher myself, and in some ways am fairly easily intimated, I beg you let me leave that and go back to what I think to be the entire purpose of education in the first place” (Paragraph 2, Page 1). Though Baldwin is not a teacher and he cannot tell them how to do their job correctly he is suggesting his thoughts and ideas that he had been through when facing education and trying to build a common ground for his viewers, so he can be upfront with his readers on what he has been through and with that maybe we can use his insight on education for future purposes.

James  Baldwin Response 

I think James Baldwin is saying that American history has a good side but also bad side to it and because of that we as students need too learn about more about the country we live in and how it comes to this point how it all started versus how it all end because knowing American history is not greatest its still important to know so we know that the where we live in been through and is still going to this day. When Baldwin says that “the world is larger” I think what he means that’s there more to life that we don’t know about and that the world is place where we all want to explore every aspect because its something that we are all interested and expanding our knowledge on the world can be beautiful yet dangerous thing. There are many things I wish were taught in school that wasn’t like how to deal with real world problems like how do we file for taxes or like mental health even making mistakes and failures are good because if you think about when we as students make mistake or fail at something its like the end of the world and because we push ourselves way too hard than its needs to be because apparently making mistakes in life won’t get you anywhere, but I feel like in life its not always about the success that comes with its about the fails that occurred in your life which made you to be successful to this day, because we learn from our mistakes and make good use of it. I wanna know more about these topics because its how the real word works and what we are taught in school doesn’t even come close to the real world we have to face and since we students pretty stay in school for most of our lives we should always learn something that can useful to us in the world we live in now.