Analysis Of Malcolm X's Freedom Through Learning To Read

Malcolm X’s Freedom Through Learning to Read, is about the time he spent in prison, and how he used that time to give himself a ‘homemade education.’ Malcolm learned many things during his time in prison, but the most important of it all had to have been realizing that his ‘homemade education’ is what freed him.

Malcolm spent day in and day out practicing his skills, first copying a dictionary, then going on the read harder novels from the Parkhurst collection. He claims he was able to learn so much because, “Prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had been differently and I had attended some college. I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with college is there are too many distractions.” because he

was able to read and learn in the confines of his own room, he excelled. I feel Malcolm’s desire to learn is very admirable and in a way ties in with our previous readings, particularly Ayn Rand’s, I Owe My Brothers Nothing, because Malcolm was doing what he wanted to do, not what anyone else told him to.
Malcolm also found it very troubling when he realized Mr.

Muhammad's words were true, black history really had been whitened. Even back in Malcolm’s time, for an entire race to be stripped from public education is inexcusable. It would be impossible to compact black history and its entirety into one paragraph in a history textbook. Throughout his education Malcolm found more atrocities one after another, baffled by the idea of slavery, and the images he saw, eventually this experience would turned him into the historical figure we know him as today. I think Malcolm truly believed in the value of education, education done the right way. Even after he was released from prison he spent as much time as he could continuing his own education.

The Banking Concept of Education, revolves around the concept that education and the teacher, student dynamic is supposed to indoctrinate the teacher into believe they are only meant to teach, and that the student is only meant to learn. Friere describes the teacher as a depositor of knowledge into a receptacle, the student without really going into complex details in a way that’s detached from

reality.
As Friere compares a student to a bank with which a teacher must make deposits into. He explains that, “The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means.” The Banking Concept is designed to create automatons who neglect their own human nature to question things through the lifeless teachings of their educators. It’s a frightening idea that in some parts of the world this is how education works, a rigid set of guidelines by which must be followed, as if the idea of individuality and creativity are something to be ashamed of.
Friere explains that,”Education must begin with the solution of the teacher student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.” basically telling us that our only solution is to be engaging in class, teachers need to realize that some students might not need their teaching, and students need to realize that class should also be a learning process for them as well.
Claiming an Education by Adrienne Rich accurately describes the obstacles and struggles women faced in college during the seventies onward. Rich uses a powerful, strong tone as she encourages women to step out from the shadows, to no longer be held down by family, and relationships to pursue an education and challenge themselves, to do whatever they felt was necessary.
Rich’s piece is similar to Malcolm X’s piece in the way that both black history and women’s history had essentially been ripped from the textbooks through the belief that neither groups had really contributed anything of significance to history.

Rich encourages women to take pride in themselves, to never let any man or woman advise them on how they should go about their lives. I think at the time, gender roles played such a huge part in society, simply the idea of a women wanting to become educated was mind blowing to men, and even some women who actively played into the gender role of the stay at home mom and believed that was where she was belonged in

society.
Rich believed in the betterment of education for women, including safety and the addition of women’s study courses. Rich felt that women’s studies in particular were important because, “Women’s studies are still growing, offering to more and more women a new intellectual grasp on their lives, new understanding of our history, a fresh vision of the human experience, and also a critical basis for evaluating what they hear and read in other courses.” Even with the addition to the women’s studies course, education was very difficult for many women. Having to deal with sexual harassment from other students and faculty would be enough to make, or having no one for encouragement and always being discouraged from doing what’s difficult can make any person’s life a living hell but, women have persevered and since then overcome the stereotype that women are incapable of anything besides taking care of children.