The general argument made by Martha Mendoza is about a little girl names Claudia Morales who lives the life of a farmgirl and moves twice every year along with her family, which greatly affects her life. More specifically Martha argues that this lifestyle is effecting her education an is not healthy for her in the long run. She writes “ about 90 percent of kids living in sessonal worker housing drop oit of school .” In this passage Martha is showing that these kinds of lifestyles are definetly effecting them by not being able to cpmpletee with school to be able to go furthur in theirt life. In cunclusion MArthas beliefs is that their has to be somethihg done to help with this life these kids are forced to live in to be able to live a better…
“low-wage lifestyle”. The ethical concern, however, is with her approach. I feel that the way in…
In both excerpts “ Ragged Dick” by Horatio Alger and “ The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the authors describe the life stories of their main characters and how they were trying to find a better life and achieve a good place in society. Both characters, Ragged Dick and Sylvia came from a very low class. They wanted to achieve success and feel confident about themselves. But it’s easy to notice that both characters are not doing anything for it, even though they dream about live changes.…
Although authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Matthew B. Crawford both obtain a higher degree from a university, both continue to work low-income jobs for different reasons. Ehrenreich believes minimum wage work is challenging in all aspects of the employment. She has the option to remove herself from this lifestyle but continues to stay in order to gain experience for her book "Nickel and Dimed". Crawford on the other hand finds a deeper appreciation for the working class, and even though he has an option to pursue a higher education career with his college degree he chooses to work as a mechanic for the love he has for the work. With both authors coming from similar backgrounds it's interesting to analyze how their ideas continue to differ dramatically.…
uses her story to help people see what has been happening in majority of the Hispanic…
“The Lesson” is a short story written by Toni Cade Bambara. This story tells about the effects that social inequality can have on children. It also goes to show that race and financial situations can help motivate children to make a better future for themselves. It is a story about a young African-American girl named Sylvia and her growing understanding of class inequality. The children’s educator Miss Moore introduces the facts of social inequality to the underprivileged group of children, of whom Sylvia, the main character, is the most important. Sugar, Fat Butt, Junebug, Flyboy, Rosie, and Sylvia think of Miss Moore as an unrequested educator who bores them, and Sylvia would rather do anything than listen to Miss Moore give lectures. Deep down Sylvia knows that she is underprivileged but it starts to bother her tremendously when Miss Moore introduces her to the world of the privileged. In “The Lesson,” Miss Moore sets out on a mission to teach an underprivileged group of kids an important lesson by showing them the conflict of class inequality.…
Reina Williams is 38 years old born in new York city, she is of Latin decent, in her younger life she lived in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala City by the age of 13 she had visited 8 countries, in her travels she notice that the middle class was non-exiting in other countries, you had to be born to a family with a good name or you were cursed to be poor for life, as a child you don’t understand why there are social difference, at that young age she had made up her mind that she would do things to make a difference in the world starting with giving away her school lunch to the little girl that was homeless that lived on the way to school. Since then Reina has done great things in the community she worked for the Volusia Flagler YMCA where…
This story revolves around a trip taken by five young children, accompanied by a woman named Miss Moore, to Fifth Avenue in New York. Miss Moore takes these young children to this precise location in order to teach them a lesson regarding the invisible privileges and vastly greater possibilities of wealthy individuals living in America. Although main character Sylvia does not strongly or outwardly express a will or newfound desire to change her currently low economic status for her future self, the reader is able to interpret by a specific line in this short story that she has undergone a significant transformation. Towards the conclusion on this publication, the reader can observe Sylvia's interest in overviewing what she had learned earlier that day. Sylvia mentally states, “Ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nothin,” which suggests that her stubborn, hardheaded resistance to see the truth in front of her has been transformed. Her transformation will perhaps drive her will to succeed financially in the future. This fiery, young lady certainly seems to be expressing a different outlook not only on the leader of the field trip, Miss Moore, who she formally resented and ridiculed, but also on her future aspirations to become successful. The reader may be able to infer that young Sylvia has learned the lesson of social inequality and her discovery of such an existence, motivates her will to one day become educated and financially stable. Even though the entire short story does not revolve around Sylvia expressing an acceptance or reason to change her once ignorant outlook on society, she certainly gives sufficient reason through her actions and her mental thoughts that she is going to strive to make a difference in her current…
We all had expectations of this book, and it ended up becoming more than we had thought, as I can say the same for Barbara Ehrenreich with beginning her project and in part of the outcome with more that she thought, but as for the way she lived she was still at the bottom. By documenting this emotional experience she is connecting with the readers, as the author, Ehrenreich, exposes how being in the lower class forces you to work ten times harder while still getting low…
During the early to mid 1900’s, the author was able to illustrate the life of this society from childhood all the way to adulthood. This story was written in a particular language which was relative to the environment of these children and the neighborhood they were being raised in. The children in “The Lesson” were a definite product of their society. The spoke, walked and conduct themselves according to the way they were raised and taught. The actions and conduct of the adults could be observed within the actions and conduct of the children. The author in this story used a college educated black woman, who took specific interest in helping to develop the young children in her neighborhood. She wanted to teach them that education was important and that they could achieve anything they set their minds to achieve. Miss Moore would take the children uptown to where the upper-class society lived, shopped, and frequent to show the children what other people had. She wanted the children to see that where they were from is who they are, but she also wanted them to understand it did not have to be that way (DiYanni, 2007). She also attempted to stress to the children that poor people had to demand their share of what society had (DiYanni,…
The fact that Shriver was able to acknowledge all of these truths suggests that society was starting to address the poverty issue by accepting the factors that contributed to it. Shriver had also said, “I think it makes just as good sense to take a boy or girl who was born and raised in poverty and, as a result, faces adult life without the education and training through the Job Corps.” This time, he indicated that there was a validation of the importance of providing education and training opportunities to citizens who were born and raised in poverty. By confirming the need to support them through programs like the Job Corps, society was taking a more compassionate and vigilant approach to uplift those who faced challenges due to their socioeconomic background. This shift demonstrated a growing understanding of the significance of equal opportunities and the potential for people of all backgrounds to…
Not everyone believes that life is not fair, but everyone eventually will reach a point in your life that this will come into play. For example, “At the front door, we saw fire spewing from Miss Maudie’s dining room windows (Lee 69)”. Miss Maudie did not plan this. She lost everything in her house. Maudie did not think anything like this would happen ever, which is not fair in her part. Therefore, when people say life is not always fair there are right for sure. People who could be the kindest and nicest person on earth or the rudest person on earth do not deserve this either way.…
I have the opportunities that Mildred never had. The opportunity to take my families name out of the category of poverty by being enrolled here at University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh. A first generation student to my family, and making that difference so my future will be successful. Mildred did not fail, she created a two roads for me. The first road is failure and the second road is the road to success. I choose the road to success and to carry my failures I make in life along with me on this journey. Mildred has not only been the source of my family values and morals but has created a desire for success within myself to make it out of the circle of poverty that is placed upon my generation today. During Mildred’s life she created a legacy by not only allowing failure to create success, but creating a family that holds values as it’s most important aspect of…
These laborers support their families by working long hours and meager wages. They have little or no formal education and virtually no chance of a better life without one. Spending time with the workers that I’ve befriended in my compound has made me fully aware of how blessed and fortunate I am to be able to go to school. I’m convinced I have a promising future. I’m grateful for it, but shamelessly there have been a few times when I have taken my studies for granted by not putting forth as much effort as I could have or by complaining about having to get up early for class. All that has changed though. Knowing the extreme sacrifices that the poor make to provide for their loved ones has changed my attitude and thinking. Sadly, I’ve witnessed individuals do whatever it takes to survive. It’s my hope that someday I can help people acquire the literacy skills needed for a better life either through charitable service or by making generous monetary contributions to organizations that support literacy. Nelson Mandela said it best, “Education is the most important weapon we have to change the world.” This realization drives me to appreciate the life I live, cherish the circumstances I have and to take advantage of the countless number of opportunities I’ll encounter in my academic journey so that I can be of service to others in my global…
Education is the way to help people in a broken society, where we have many lost children in the streets and jails, and parents on drugs. Role-models are what’s needed; when a child sees the parents going to school and working, hopefully it will make him or her want to do the same. Also it’s a hard decision for a mother to make, having to leave young children and seek work, but in a society with many single mothers, it’s hard not to have to work. In a mother’s decision to work, she has to have a lot of faith that the morals and values that she instilled in her child at home would help keep them safe and make positive decisions while she’s away from the home working. Education and employment is the only way to empower a society that has been torn down from years of poverty. One of the welfare reforms triumphs was an explosion for never married mothers; who rose from 45 percent in 1995 to more than 60 percent between 2000 and…