I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read

Last year I read the book To Kill a Mockingbird in Language Arts and I could agree with a lot of things that Prose said about the book in her essay, I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read. My personal experience reading this book is very similar to how Prose describes the book and what kids learn while reading it. I really did not enjoy reading this book and in class discussions about this book, we focused more on the issues this book talks about, rather than the actual quality of the literature.           

                Most of the students in my class would agree that To Kill a Mockingbird was not the best book. Kids didn’t really enjoy reading it and after a few chapters a lot of students were either skimming the text or looking the book up on Sparknotes. Prose gives a short, one paragraph summary of the book in her essay and after words states, “Such summary reduces the book, but not by all that much.” I agree with her summary and what she said about the book. Even though most kids didn’t take time to carefully read the text, most of them still did well on the quizzes and discussions over the book, because the plot was so simple and the book wasn’t very challenging. To Kill a Mockingbird was not a very good book for students to read and because of that most students didn’t read it very closely.

                When discussing this book in class we spent a lot of time talking about the issues of prejudice that the book talks about. Throughout the essay Prose mentions the type of things students are taught when reading this book and the things she says are very close to what I was being taught when reading the book. She says, “… I obtained from the Internet, outlines the ‘overall goal’ of teaching the book (‘To understand problems relating to discrimination and prejudice that exist in our present day society. To understand and apply these principles to our own lives’).” I do believe that the goal Prose mentions in reading this book is similar to the goal of reading this book in my Language Arts class last year. We did spend a lot of time discussing the issues of prejudice mentioned in the book.

                Throughout Prose’s essay, I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read, she talks about how students aren’t getting much out of books like To Kill a Mockingbird and I agree with her. After reading this book, I really didn’t learn much and didn’t enjoy reading it. I think she makes a valid argument when criticizing To Kill a Mocking Bird.

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Education

If I could change schools I would make them have a little more freedom for kids. I think that schools are good right now and are effective in giving a proper education for kids, but there are some things that I would change to try to make kids enjoy learning more than they do now. I would try to make schools offer more freedom to kids, change how students are graded, and have more hands on activities for kids.

                I think that kids should be able to take whatever classes they want and not be required to take any specific class that doesn’t relate to what they want to do when they are older. If someone wanted to be a writer when they are older, they shouldn’t have to take calculus or geometry. If someone wanted to do something with math they shouldn’t have to take four years of language arts in high school. Kids should have more freedom in picking classes, because it could help them focus on what their career is going to be when they are older and it could also help kids enjoy school more.

                I believe there should also be more hands on learning activities in school. This would include things like field trips to different places people could work when they are older and it would help kids decide what they want to do when they are older. Hands on activities would make it easier and more fun for kids to learn and I think it would make students have more motives to learn.

                I would also want to change how kids are graded. Instead of getting a grade based mostly off of test, it should be based more on a kid’s effort.  Grades should be waited more on how much homework they do and how often they are paying attention in class. Some kids are naturally very smart and they don’t have to pay attention in class or do their homework to get an A, so teachers should try to base their grades on effort rather than grades depending only on how well students do on tests.

                I do think that schools do a good job educating kids and I don’t think it is possible to make schools perfect.  Offering more freedom, changing how kids are graded and doing more hands on learning activities in school, might make kids enjoy learning more and try harder in school. If I could change schools, I would try to make students want to learn more.

 

 

 

 

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