Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Childhood development affects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Bill Strickland spends his days helping people through Manchester Bidwell. He founded job training programs and also a community arts program to help and mentor young people. When Bill Strickland was younger he did not have the tools and everything he gives to the kids now for mentoring. Strickland’s life changed when he found pottery. It was something he was good at from the start. Bill grew up in Pittsburgh, and it was not the prettiest. People were losing their jobs and the town was falling apart. Strickland’s mother shaped him to be a successful man. She did not let him “fall into the ghettos trapdoor”. Strickland spends his life trying to fix the substandard neighborhood that he grew up in. Everything Bill Strickland has done in his …show more content…
Reading this book has given me more motivation to be successful in life. I can compare Bill Strickland and my life to some extent. Bill grew up in the ghetto, in Pittsburgh. Strickland’s town was falling apart and going downhill, but his mother made sure not to let her children be taken by the ghetto. Although the town was not beautiful in the outside, Bills mother always made sure her house and children were clean and up to shape. While Strickland was in High School, he met Frank Ross. Not only zdid Ross become his pottery teacher but he also became his mentor in life. Because of Bills encounter with Frank, he has now changed the lives of …show more content…
The programs at Manchester Bidwell have now seen a 90% of kids at attend there graduate from high school. The children and teens that also attend there have a better rate at attending schools, improved behavior, and also started receiving higher grades. Having all of the mentors and teachers at Manchester Bidwell was able to educate and change the lives of thousands of kids. Everyone there works together to help turn around the lives of kids in need. Reading this book has gave me even more motivation to complete all of my goals in life. Bill Strickland never gave up on his dream and never let anything come in his way and stop him from completing his dream. No matter how hard is life was or if he had any obstacles in his way he still managed to be very successful in life. Bill has gone through some hard times while he was living in the ghetto at a young age, but after all the chaos he has dealt with he has become a very successful man and helped the lives of
I have only read four books my entire life for school, but this is one is the best I have read. There were numerous things that I learned from the book. The one that hit me the hardest was it's hard to see people living in shame because they can cover it up really well, almost like it doesn’t bother them at all. I grew up in a middle class family and simply didn't understand what it meant to be so broke that you are ashamed to be around people who have money. The thought never crossed my mind, ever.
A stone of Hope by Jim St Germain is a memoir about the life of a young African-American immigrating to the United States and opting to the streets of Brooklyn Crown Heights. When my more expresses the poverty and troubles in the criminal justice system. As a young boy living in poverty and recently moving to America Jim used the streets as his Learning Center. The author and protagonist of the memoir, Jim, struggled in education system trying to learn a new language and adapting to his new surroundings. With the stigma of being an ESL student and the lack of support in school and at home Jim begin to invest more time into streets then into his education, he began stealing and dealing drugs and growing up increasingly violent. At the age of 15 Jim had been arrested more than a dozen times but instead of prison St Germain was placed in Boys Town. Boys Town being a rehabilitation center for troubled youth, to help change the lives of children who have severe Behavioral or mental health problems, academically and socially. Even from a young age in the Criminal Justice System St Germain knew that there was a problem lack of compassion and human capital.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It truly gives you a lot to think about. I'm only in high school which doesn't give me much opportunity right now of getting a good job, even though I'm going to be in need of one since I'm having a baby. This book made me see that I better have a good education to get a good job or I'm not going to be able to take care of myself and a baby.
Rylant juxtaposes Ginny’s poor family, living on a salary that can only be secured within the harsh, unrelenting working conditions of an industrial mill, against John’s family who is oblivious to the fear of poverty or hunger. In this juxtaposition, contemporary issues of economic privilege and workers rights influence the budding war-time romance of John and Ginny, and to us, the audience, peering in at them. By gradually magnifying John’s discomfort in entering Ginny’s “tattered neighborhood,” Rylant reveals the historical extraordinariness of wealth amidst squalor in the city of Pittsburgh. “Mills were fed coal and men so Pittsburgh might live,” and Ginny’s father gives his life to the mill so his family might live, albeit in the walls of this tiny rented apartment (Rylant 2). Both historically realistic and entirely fictitious, Rylant’s characters break the “single perspective” of history texts, fleshing out facts with their own stories, and marking our modern time with their experiences (Jacobs and Tunnell 117).
This story gives the readers the feeling of ambitions. There might be some misguided individuals out there that have an similar lifestyle to McCall and reading this book would potentially help them seek desire for success. Growing up McCall had intentions of being different. For instance, while he was in prison he recalled back to the time he study so hard for Mr. Brown test. Even his parents knew he was different because out of everyone around his neighborhood he was the only one who attended a white school. Then when he attended a black school he wanted to learned, but got caught in society. Prison was a good place for him because to occupy his time he start reading and learning. Additionally, prison help him develop a sense of inner discipline and self worth. Gail Jardine stated that “ Makes Me Wanna Holler is a journey not just from degradation to accomplishment, but also from absence to self-determined”. This shows that the book gives the readers more than excitement and the urge to want to keep reading, but also try to find your place in
Although this book had no major affect on me, I learned how a boy can go through traumatic experiences and still have the will power to keep going on. That was the only thing that really affected me in the whole book.
This book also made me realized that I should not take my life for granted. I think that many people, myself included, fail to realize that this type of poverty does not just exist in third world countries, they exist in America. I think that all people need to realize something like this either by reading a book or by becoming involved in volunteer work in that type of environment. We live with blinders on and for a change to occur, people need to become more aware of the problems others face. I have learned that children who are easily influenced by their peers may become gang members and involved in drugs. These kids who live in the projects are just kids and should not have to lose their childhood and innocence at such an early age.
The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city’s overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he’d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they’ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the “survival of the unfittest”. (Pg.
...y. He touched parts of the slaves' lives and what they really went through, but I don't think we even have a true idea of what it would have been in their shoes. The author presented the information in a very solid way and sectioned out very well. I understood what he was trying to explain easily. It was somewhat a long book but very much full of knowledge and history that in spirit is still alive today. We may not have slavery like it was then, but we still deal with racism and prejudices daily. The world changed because of slavery and is the way it is because of the history of America. We cannot change the past but we can change the future. Thank God the world is not the way it was. I cannot imagine what painful lives the slaves had to endure. But we can become knowledgeable about the history of slavery and America and learn from it in many different ways.
One in three kids in America experience homelessness. In the short story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes there is a boy who tries to steal a woman's purse. The boy in this story is named Roger, and he is the dynamic character in the story. There are many reasons why Roger a dynamic character in this short story. Roger is a dynamic character because he changes throughout the story, first, he is a boy who has no home and anybody to go to so he steals things in order to survive. It is not until the end of this passage where it is shown that he has learned from Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and he has changed dramatically.
In this essay I will introduced, compare and describe this two following books, “Meet You in Hell” written by Les Standiford, and “Praying for Sheetrock” written by Melissa Fay Greene”. In “Meet You in Hell” the problem was that the friend ship of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick was about a betrayal that went among both men’s trough out their lifetime. In the other hand in “Praying for Sheetrock” the main point of the book is about racial discrimination something that back in McIntosh County Georgia happened so much. Both books have their own significant, as I mention one book is about a breakdown of two men’s friendship and the other book about a little county that lead to racial discrimination. But both novels gives us a short lesson of life as I will explain throughout the paper.
I learned a lot of information about one of America’s most profound President’s. I liked how the book brought Lincoln into a common man’s point of view. Before reading this book I had thought of President Lincoln almost as a character in a folk tale, a hero in the story of America’s past. I had envisioned him almost as a god among men, whereas this book quickly changed that perception, showing some of his human flaws such as being so uncomfortable around women that he often avoided their company altogether. Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was how it walked the reader through the struggles that Lincoln went through in his early life, a part that of his life I had never heard about. It was very interesting and kind of sad to read about Lincoln’s detachment from his family and his father. The book did a great job of describing his self-studies and his motivation to better himself through education. In the text it described Lincoln’s path to politics from a young man all the way through his presidency to his assassination. I found it very interesting the difference in the way politics was carried out compared to how it is today. One specific example that really opened my eyes to the stark differences was when he threw a man over a fence after that man started heckling the man who was speaking. After reading that I was shocked because if that happened today Lincoln’s political career would likely be over and there would probably be charges pressed against him. I enjoyed reading this book, it taught me a lot about the Civil War, but even more so I really liked that it described Lincoln’s early life in such
From a guy who seemed considerably timid, he put plenty of bold components to his writing that lured his audience into his novel. Cann put in details that described New Jersey and the conversations that took place there in the impoverished side of town. It was helpful that I had just recently visited New Jersey and went through these similar streets. The readings made me feel like I was back there and a part of his novel. Cann delivered his novel in an appropriate manner and it made me want to read the rest of the
hope to increase the access to these programs. This has worked to reduce the cost, but not the effectiveness of the programs in low-income schools.
In his book, Mr. Strickland talks about his meeting with Frank Ross. Frank Ross opens his eyes to pottery and other aspects of life. I once had a mentor like Frank Ross. His name was Kyle Fulleton. He was a bald man about my height. He had a strange accident, due to him being from Alaska. He was in the army for eight years and was a master automotive technician. His first time as a teacher was also my first time meeting him. He was a funny man who made little sense sometimes. After years of being around him he helped me with a lot. Everything from people problems, girlfriends, and family problems. I learned for an early age he was a good friend and an awesome person to look up too. When I was about fifteen I wanted to join the army and nothing else. He showed me there was other opportunities in life. Thanks to him I have been led down a road that has led me to be the most successful in my family and on the path to a great career. I still have contact with him to thi...