Part A-
In the auto biography “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass there was a part that stood out to me. In the end of the 6th paragraph Douglass refers to a book he read called “The Columbian Orator” and how it changed his whole perspective on this world and his position as a slave. He states “The more I read the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery.” I found this is probably the single most important sentence in the story as it explains his whole life as well as the importance of reading and its downsides. This sentence shows the shift in Fredrick Douglass’ mindset from the kid who loved to read to the abolitionist he will soon be. It explains his absolute hatred and disgust at his slave owners the same ones he once referred to as “pious, warm, and tender-hearted”. It also transitions the text from that of reminiscent of his old self, to one of a spiteful story. The saying that comes to mind when I think about this quote is “ignorance is bliss” and I think that sums up most of this text because had he never learned to read and had he never decided to keep reading “The Columbian Orator” he would have never gained the animosity and anguish that tortured him for the rest of his life as a slave.
Part B-
              Education is such a simple thing when it comes down to it. It’s a pattern of listening learning and applying. Despite it being that simple to do everyone has so much academic problems in this world. Me, for example, I got stuck at the “applying” part. I used to hate doing HW when I was younger. I was very smart for my age but homework was what held me back. On top of that my mom would always push me to do more than what everyone else was doing for their homework’s. This was overwhelming for me and I finally couldn’t take any more of it and when I got of age that my mom decided to stop overlooking my homework, (around seventh grade) I started to stop doing homework. This lasted a long time (until my senior year in high school) and my grades showed. For someone like me that could easily understand all the work in class, I was almost failing my classes simply because of HW.
              Although I hated homework enough to almost let myself fail, that was still an “almost”. There were times where I would do homework. Most of these times were when the homework was an extension of the classwork. Other times were when the homework’s that were short and online. Finally we have the end of year makeup. At the end of every year I would force myself to make up most of my recent or major homework assignments to be able to pass that class. In some classes I would be fine as I only had a few to do, but others (more homework intensive classes) I would struggle to finish it all. Eventually I would get tired of cramming all the homework at the last minute and I decided to come up with a different way of doing things which was never having homework. By this, I mean finishing all my homework in school so that I never would have to worry about doing homework at home. I would try to do homework and any chance I got during school, (like if I finished my classwork and had extra time) sometimes even doing homework before classwork. However this would not work all the times as I would have leftovers that couldn’t finish in school. Finally, I would go on to just suck it up and doing my homework. After screwing up royally in my junior year ( covid/ online classes) I decided that I would just have to get used to doing my homework at home. So, I rid myself of all distractions and developed my own way of doing homework, differently from my mother’s way. This way would in include periodical breaks and most importantly music. To this day I still use this strategy to do my homework. Despite this working for me I still don’t like homework and it is my philosophy that all work should be done in school.
I agree with you on when it came do doing homework when I was younger and also on my mother always pushing me to do better.
I can also agree with you when it came to homework, homework to me seemed like a waste of my time especially when I was younger. I would always have an excuse to disconnect myself away from it. In the long run, it would always be worse and you’re out there trying to catch your own tail the whole time.
OK I can see that you understand your chosen passage. Good!
However I am looking for you to take each sentence and put the writer’s words into yoru own. READ MY ANNOUNCMENTS and see the example I posted.
SO for Douglass sentence, “The more I read the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery.” You should have a full paragraph with your own words and this sentence should be something like: As I read more, I learned to hate my slave owners. I considered them like a band of thieves who had gone to Africa and stolen our people and brought us to America and made us their slaves.
Part B: I sympathize with your story.
Your sentence: cramming all the homework at the last minute — sounds like a lot of other students! And you did find a good strategy. Here at CTech you can use the computer centers to get things done before you go home. And it’s good you have found YOUR OWN way and not just your mom’s. I know that kids often reject the ways their parents have of dealing, I know my own kids too reject my ways! Best is to solve and find your own way!