Other Wes Moore Reflection

This is my first year here at Porterville College, I can say that I have learned many new things. Things that I wanted to learn, that seemed interesting to me, and more important that I was able to do was connect somethings that I have learned in my personal experience, and I think that’s what makes it more interesting and fun. In my “Child, Family, and Community” I have learned how important it is for a child to be in a safe environment where they can have the opportunity to choose from many choices. Also I, have learned about the variety of programs here in Tulare Country that help families and young kids to better themselves for a better life. Another class that I don’t regret taking is English 73X because I have learned many things which

I do believe that I will better myself from this class.

During English 73x we read the text “The Other Wes Moore” and it caught my attention in an instant, maybe because it’s something different or because it’s about how our choices that we make as young teens can determine our

destines. It’s amazing how two young boys sharing many similarities have taken a different path in their life; one being very successful and yet the other being in prison for life. Wes Moore the author praises “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” (180). These two young men have grown up within the same environment where there is not much of opportunities to choose from, but to follow what they have in front of them. Wes Moore comes from a well-educated family, his dad was a reporter, and died when Wes was three years old. Wes Moore’s family always wanted the best for him and wanted him to see beyond to what was limited to him. However, the other Wes Moore dad was alive but never supported Wes because his mom Mary abended him for being an alcoholic. What could have cause these two young men to have different destines? In my believe it’s not too much of the decisions each took being young, I believe family is what impacted them two to become who they are now. Family theme is The Other Wes Moore is interesting to think about while reading it because it shows how a family’s situation, either economically or emotionally can change a person’s future so much. As to what Wes Moore praises, I don’t believe he could had had the other Wes Moore’s story, especially nor the other Wes Moore could have had his.
During the late 1970’s in Baltimore, Maryland two boys share similar backgrounds within the same community.

It really unbelievable how two young boys can have so many similarities, not only did both have the same name, but they were also raised fatherless. Reading the text “The Other Wes Moore” I learned how family, and environment take a major role in how our stories end up different from each other’s. Wes Moore the author writes the book hoping that his story and the other Wes Moore will help people change their life’s, by inspiring them to see our themselves as capable of taking control of their own destinies, and to realize how each decisions we make determines the path we take to the end of our life stories. Wes Moore asserts, “I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances” (67). Why is it that it’s hard to distinguish from last chances and second chances? Maybe because we like to think short-term rather than to think long-term and we do things without thinking of the consequences of the choses we make, or we make bad habits a routine. For example, the other Wes Moore gets arrested many times he starts to think it’s a routine he has. However, Wes Moore gets in trouble for spray-painting in the streets and when the cop let him go he thinks about how he had put himself in that situation for such a stupid. Here we can see how they both have a different way of thinking about the situation. This is why I do not believe that the other

Wes Moore had any possibilities to having the author Wes Moore’s story, nor could Wes Moore could have had the other Wes Moore’s story. When they were growing up they were both also encountered with the problem of drugs in their neighborhoods, but yet they both treated the situation differently. Yet they were both also raised differently which has to do a lot with how they both ended up, because the first role models a child ever has is their parents and their siblings living with them at home.
The two main important factors in my own belief that caused Wes Moore the writer to become successful in life, while the other Wes Moore ended in prison for life were their family and the environment. A child that grows within parents that care, have consistent disciplinary techniques, and have stimulating home environment are more likely to learn that negative consequences are not acceptable. They are also at a higher level of having higher IQ’s, which result achievement in school. Wes Moore the writer was the child that grew up in this type of environment inside his home. For example, when he hits his sister his mom gets really mad at him and wants him to know that what he did is not acceptable. However, a child that comes from a family that has poor communication and weak bonding show to have a correlation with the child’s development of aggressive, and criminal behavior. They also have lower IQ’s which leads to no succeed, and have lower self-esteem. In this case I believe the other Wes Moore relates to this because his family wasn’t always around when he was choosing the bad decisions. He also had a low IQ because when he gets arrested for so many times he starts to think it’s a routine. Wes Moore the writer claims “When we’re young, it sometimes seems as if the world doesn’t exist outside our city, our blocks, our house, our room. We make decisions based on what we see in that limited world and follow the only models available” (179). I find Wes Moore’s statement very true because if we stay in the same environment all are life’s we’re never going to know that their better opportunities for us, and that nothing is limited if we don’t want to. Wes Moore’s mother wanted Wes to see that he had more opportunities and she wanted him to be in a better environment, so she sends him to Military School. She knew that Wes was capable of doing better and becoming someone in life. Wes was already surrounded by models that influenced him to know form right to wrong. Wes Moore proves that he can have a higher IQ level when he stops trying to run away from military school and does his best to become someone in life. The Other Wes Moore didn’t run with the same luck Wes did because he stayed in the same environment, and followed the only models he had available. Such as Tony when warned his brother to stay out of the drug game when himself was in it. Young teens in today’s society can have lower IQ levels because of the problems they are facing and don’t know where to find the solution, so they start to fail and let failure be their excuse to not succeeding in life. This is why it’s very important that parents have bonding time with their child, and age does not matter. A parent’s responsibility is to make sure that the child feels safe in the environment their growing up and to teach them that hard work leads to achievement. We as parents are a child’s first teacher.
Failure is a step to achieving in life, so if we don’t take that first step we won’t know our next step. In life some achieve higher than others, but that doesn’t mean that the ones that achieve less are failures. We need to let young kids in today’s society know that it’s okay to fail, because without failure we don’t learn and if we never learn we will never achieve our goals in life. In the Ted Talk that me and my group had to do it was about accepting failure. Barbara Corcoran did this speech explaining how failure helped her succeed in life. Corcoran asserts “Failure and Innovation are kissing cousins. You will not have an innovation business unless you allow failure” (ted talk). In the text Wes Moore, the author accepted his failure when gets arrested. However, the other Wes Moore accepted failure when he starts to think about his daughter and goes get help at the Job Corps, but when he goes back home he goes back to selling drugs. Many people might think that once they fail in something they do not have the ability to do it. We all are born knowing nothing just the voice of our mom and possible our dad, so we expect for them to teach us. For example, when we first learn how to walk we fall and fall over and over again, and our parents are happy to see us fall because they see that we are trying to do something on our own, and that’s a way of accepting failure, yeah many might think different and say that we were too small to know failure, but we get to the point of learning and understanding that it’s not easy to do something unless we try it. After we have the ability to accept failure in our life’s we should look for our motivation to keep going for our goal, avoid bitterness and blame, identify our limits and ignore them, have heroes that we can look up to and feel safe around them, and have a mentor that will guide us to the right path.
Actions speak louder than words, our actions are more important to what we speak. Wes Moore the author had his change in his life when he gets send to Military school and is surrounded by mentors that help him become successful, for the other Wes Moore his change never came. Its why I believe that The statement Wes Moore does is not true because Wes Moore had many more opportunities than the other Wes Moore. I think that even though they both shared similarities’ they both encountered them differently and one didn’t learn from his mistakes as to how the other one did because he was around stronger and well educated men. In a community many of us can grow up knowing that someone else is going through the same problems, but it really depends on how the family influence the child and communicate with him to achieve their goals.