Breaking Barriers: Frederick Douglass's Fight for Education

In life there will always be someone who says it cannot be done, but that does not always stop an individual from achieving his or her goals in life. Frederick Douglass wrote the article of his life experience, “Learning to Read and Write.” Douglass explains the struggles he went through as a slave just to learn to read and write. During this time period slaves were not taught how to read and write; therefore, he had to do this on his own. Douglass fought a battle of breaking through the ideas that a slave should not and could not be educated. Today many people fight a similar battle to achieve their goals. Many just give in to society as many slaves did in the past. In life people are not always given the opportunities that allow them to advance

This is the time period where he learned to read and write. His mistress, who was a compassionate lady, was secretly teaching Douglass behind her husband’s back. She sparked Douglass’s desire to become a literate person. Mrs. Hugh taught him the alphabet and, soon after, her husband found out what she had done. He explained that teaching a slave put their family in a dangerous situation and she became harsher than her husband. Douglass’s desire still urged on and he found his own way to learn to read. Douglass used his resources to his advantage. He used bread form the Hugh’s kitchen, which was available to him, to bribe the poor white boys and, in turn, they would teach him how to read. These boys then became his unofficial teachers. Douglass says of the boys, “I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men” (62). Douglass felt that learning to read would give him a sense of independence, but yet he would never be truly free because of

Dyslexia makes it harder for me to read, spell, comprehend, and remember information. Growing up, the public school system marked me as a student who would not succeed in college life and had no reason to be prepared for college. I had an IEP for almost all of my schooling, which meant I was able to get extra help on classes and more time on testing. The school system never really followed through with my IEP and told me that I was just fine without it. Since the school felt I was performing so well on my own in academic classes, they talked my mom and me into doing away with my IEP. Throughout high school, something inside me told me I was better than just an academic student. I wanted to be able to be in honors classes because academic classes were not challenging enough for me. Teachers and other students did not take the academic classes seriously. I asked to be placed in an honors class my junior year; I was told it would be too difficult for me and I would fail. The school also told me that they could not find an open seat in the classrooms for me. This situation is similar to how Douglass felt. As he relates, “It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (63). Douglass understands his condition and how he is felt to be inferior and cannot do anything about it, as he is being suppressed. I too felt as though the school was hindering my academic advancement. So