“A Talk To Teachers”- Frida

In “A Talk to Teachers”, by James Baldwin, he is telling the audience that not everyone sees the world the same way. In the writing, Baldwin encourages curiosity through a young black boy’s perspective on life and how he lives it compared to other people in new york city. He also talks about his own thoughts and the curiosity he had while growing up. In the writing, he mentions “the world is larger”. What he means by this is that the world is huge with a plethora of places to explore from no matter where you are. Not everyone grows up in luxurious and safe conditions. In the case of Baldwin himself, he mentions that he grew up in park ave. In the writing, he quotes “The Park Avenue I grew up on, which is still standing, is dark and dirty. No one would dream of opening a Tiffany’s on that Park Avenue, and when you go downtown you discover that you are literally in the white world”.  Growing up, society expects you to know whatever it is they teach you in school or simply just around your community. The truth is, there is much more to life and we all get curious to know what it is that we can learn beyond our surroundings. This is exactly Baldwin’s point to make us gain curiosity about the world in general. Something I wished schools would’ve taught me was more about racism, race, and culture. The majority of the time, many teachers avoid the topic due to how sensitive it can be. It would be good to learn more about it because of ongoing situations that occur in today’s world. It even makes me curious and I ask myself if learning more about these things can make a positive change to future society.