Education Unit Short Story Essay - “The Lesson”, Characterization
Hands-on learning is a method of teaching in which the student teaches themselves through creative projects, experimentation, research, or any other medium through which the student discovers information on their own. Hands-on learning is beneficial to students, a point which has been proven many times over and even been explored in fictional stories, such as “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. In “The Lesson”, the characterization of the narrator, Sylvia, is used to prove the point that hands-on learning is advantageous to students because it offers a higher level of engagement and is more effective at imparting the lesson to the students.
Sylvia displays many traits over the
…show more content…
course of “The Lesson” through her thoughts, emotions, and words. One such trait is her easily-bored nature, as portrayed by her thoughts during Miss Moore’s initial attempt at teaching them about the wealth gap in their society. While Miss Moore talks to the children, Sylvia thinks such things as, “And I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree,” and “I’d rather go to the pool or to the show where it’s cool.” Shortly after, she says, “So right away I’m tired of this and say so.” Sylvia’s disinterest in Miss Moore’s lesson shows the reader that she has a rather distractible nature. Another trait of Sylvia’s is her ignorance and naivety. She is completely unaware of her financial situation in comparison to the rest of the world’s. When Miss Moore is telling the children about what money is like in this world, Sylvia says, “And then she gets to the part where we all poor and live in the slums, which I don’t feature.” Later, at the toy store, Sylvia is amazed by the exorbitant prices on the unnecessary objects there. After listing all the things that she and her family could buy with the $35 it would take to purchase a clown toy, Sylvia says, “Who are these people who spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats?” Sylvia’s ignorance is shown through her lack of understanding of what Miss Moore is telling them and her shock at the ability of rich people to be so extravagant. Sylvia is an easily bored person who is ignorant to her financial situation, as shown by what she says and thinks. The author of “The Lesson” uses Sylvia’s trait of being rather inattentive to show that hands-on learning is beneficial to students. Sylvia was bored by Miss Moore’s first approach at teaching them the lesson. When Miss Moore was merely talking to the children about the wealth gap in their society, Sylvia was thinking about where she’d rather be and did not absorb any of the information that Miss Moore was telling her, as expressed by her statement of “And then she gets to the part where we all poor and live in the slums, which I don’t feature.” However, when they arrive at the toy store, Sylvia begins to understand what Miss Moore was trying to tell them about how money is unfairly divided in this country. Sylvia’s easily bored nature is what prevents the mechanical, teacher talking at the student type of learning from working for her. She only understands the lesson when she is at the toy store, because her character requires a more engaging, independent type of learning, to which hands-on learning meets all the requirements. Many students require this level of engagement for their learning, and those who don’t require it would still be engaged and still benefit from it. Hands-on learning offers a higher level of engagement to students, which often makes it more effective at teaching the lesson. Sylvia’s trait of being easily bored is what makes hands-on learning effective for her, and just like Sylvia, students as a whole can benefit from the engagement that hands-on learning has to offer. Another way in which Sylvia’s traits are used to show that hands-on learning is beneficial to students is her ignorance, and then later the disappearance of said ignorance.
At the beginning of the story, Sylvia is unaware of the fact that she is poor and that there are rich people in the world. However, by the end of the story, Sylvia’s ignorance has disappeared and she has become educated about how money works in her society. The growth that Sylvia’s character shows over the course of the story is caused by hands-on learning, proving its effectiveness. Sylvia did not understand the lesson when Miss Moore tried to merely explain it to the children, and she remained ignorant. When Sylvia goes to the toy store and has the lesson taught to her through hands-on learning, she loses her trait of ignorance as she begins to understand Miss Moore’s lesson. Hands-on learning is beneficial to students because it is often more effective at imparting the lesson to students, and makes the lesson more likely to have an impact on them. By the end of the story, Sylvia shows a determination that she did not previously have, showing that Miss Moore’s lesson had an impact on her. At the very end of the story, Sylvia says, “She [Sugar] can run if she want to and even run faster. But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.” This shows that not only was hands-on learning effective at teaching Sylvia the lesson, but it also allowed the lesson to have a greater effect on her and resonate more, as shown by her determination at the end of the story and her emotional response in the toy store. Sylvia’s character growth throughout the course of the story shows how hands-on learning effectively taught her the lesson, and aided in having the lesson resonate with her and have a greater impact. Just as hands-on learning was beneficial to Sylvia, this style of learning is also advantageous to students in general because of its effectiveness at teaching the lesson and its tendency to cause greater
resonance of said lesson with the students. Sylvia’s easily bored nature and character growth throughout the story makes hands-on learning effective for her and demonstrates just how effective. Hands-on learning is shown to be beneficial to Sylvia through her characterization, and just as with Sylvia, the hands-on learning approach is beneficial to students in general because it offers a higher level of engagement, is more effective at imparting the lesson upon those learning it, and is more likely to affect the students learning through it.
In the article titled “Pashtana’s Lesson” by Beth Murphy, she records the story of a 15 year-old Afghani girl who has a fiery passion for acquiring knowledge and pursuing education, but old traditions oppress her devotion to study. Pashtana is in the 7th grade at an all girls school which has been rejected by the elders in their community, asked to be torn down, or turned into an all boys school. Her mother strongly enforces studies on her children because she never went to school herself and she doesn’t want her children to end up blind to things in the world like her. In order to support her mother and three younger siblings financially, Pashtana is being forced by her uncle and father to marry her first cousin which is not uncommon, the
This paragraph shows that Sylvia was trying to think about the meaning why Miss Moore took her students to there even though she knew that no one could buy anything there. Cartwright says, “Nothing could make Miss Moore happier than Sylvia’s commitment ‘to think the day through (Cartwright, 114).’” Miss Moore knew that Sylvia was trying to understand the real theory of this field trip. She did not say anything when she was asked what did she think about this field trip to Miss Moore because she did not understand exactly what the genuine purpose of this field trip at that point. Although Sylvia did not understand, Sugar seemed like she got the lesson of this trip, as she said “ this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don't it? (336)”. Miss Moore expected more answers from Sylvia, since she looked like she was thinking so hard. This is the reason why Miss Moore looked at Sylvia when she asked to her students a same question again, “Anybody else learn anything today? (336)”. She said “anybody”, but she was expecting the answer from Sylvia in this scene because she looked like she was thinking about it harder than the other students as she got a lot of question such as “What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained people inside and a wall where they can only see shadow illusions, which they believe is reality. Outside the cave, there is “light” and “truth.” One chained person is released into the “light,” which is uncomfortable at first, because of how bright the “light” or “truth” is however, once he adjusts, he realizes the outer world is the “truth” or reality and the cave is a shadow of reality. He pities the ones in the cave, still lost in the darkness yet, when he tries to make them see reality, their ignorance overpowers them and they kill the enlightened one out of fear and confusion. This is the kind of society, full of puppet-handlers, the narrator Sylvia in “The Lesson” dwells in and the author, Toni Cade Bambara, depicts Sylvia as being freed from the chains of ignorant society. Bambara’s released prisoner, Miss Moore, is the one to free Sylvia and the other chained prisoners and exposes them to the “light,” which is the unequal distribution of wealth and the “truth,” which is educating youth on economic inequality so the freed prisoners can learn to change their society’s shadow of reality.
“I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” is a remark actor Johnny Depp made back in 2010 about his relationship with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have been in a relationship since 1998 and have two children together, Lily Rose and Jack. Another member of Hollywood’s elite, Latin singer Shakira, shares a similar view saying that marriage is like a contract, and that is unromantic. However, celebrities living like Shakira and Depp are also committing fornication and already view themselves as being married; the marriage is just not official. This draws comparisons to Ernest Gaines’ novel 'A Lesson Before Dying'. Two of the novel’s main characters, Grant and Vivian, have sex outside of marriage because they cannot be married since Vivian is still legally married to another man (Gaines 29). Even though of Vivian’s situation differs slightly from that of Depp’s, the act is still the same. These adults are conducting the act of sex outside of marriage; they are either ignoring what their religion teaches on the subject or do not care what religion has to say.
I enjoyed reading Disciplined Hearts by Theresa O'Nell because i find that many people today do not know a lot about the Native American culture and what they have been through. Their cultures history is not talked about as much the African American or Hispanic's are. Most Americans know about the hardships that the African American and Hispanics had to overcome to assimilate to the level that they are today. I think O'Nell is trying to talk about the history of the Native American culture because, she believes that the reason that their culture is not well-known because of the fact that they have chosen to keep living like their ancestors and not assimilate to the American culture.
The negative attitude and bitterness makes Sylvia unreliable, she is prejudice against Miss Moore because she prevents Sylvia and the other children from having fun, which seems to be the only thing that matters to Sylvia. Sylvia states, “I’m really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree. I’d much rather go to the pool or to the show where it’s cool” (Bambara, 209). Sylvia is still young and naïve, so she doesn’t view getting an education as something she wants to do, she just wants to have fun and not learn anything but she eventually realizes that Miss Moore just wants her and the other children to
Dennis Covington writes about a unique method of worship—snake handling, in his memoir, Salvation on Sand Mountain. He begins as a journalist, looking in on this foreign way of life; however, as time progresses he increasing starts to feel a part of this lifestyle. As a result loses his journalistic approach, resulting in his memoir, detailing his own spiritual journey. Upon the conclusion of his stay in this world, Covington realizes the significance of this journey, and argues in his memoir that we cannot entirely know ourselves until we step outside of our comfort zone and separate ourselves from our norm.
Bambara writes, “So right away I'm tired of this and say so. And would much rather snatch Sugar and go to the Sunset and terrorize the West Indian kids and take their hair ribbons and their money too. And Miss Moore files that remark away for next week's lesson on brotherhood, I can tell” (2). From this, we can see that Sylvia knew what she said was wrong and even why it was so. This also happens to be the passage that Cartwright uses to illustrate that the children require more than one lesson on a hot Harlem day; they deserve a thorough education. Cartwright explains “Rather than simply teaching a single lesson, the story is about the value of lessons themselves, the value of learning and thinking”
One of Miss Moore's defining qualities is her intelligence. Her academic skills and self-presentation is noticeable through her college degree and use of “proper speech” (Bambara, 385). Miss Moore also makes her intelligence evident from the methods she uses to teach Sylvia and the other children. Unlike planting them in classrooms, she takes them out on trips to show them the real world. Despite all the insults she receives from th...
The major theme of the story was creating awareness in adolescents about what life has to offer. The nature of human beings of accepting the realities of life to such an extent that apathy and lethargy sets in, is what proves to be destructive for the social fabric of today’s world. In this stagnation, Mrs. Moore provides the impetus required for people to realize their god given right to something better. We are told that Mrs. Moore has a college degree, is well dressed most of the times, and has a good command on her language. She seems to be a kind of a person who has seen the world. She has experienced life, and wants to use that experience in providing the children with an opportunity to broaden their horizons. This opportunity that she strives to provide is opening their eyes to the true nature of life and not by giving them money and bombarding their psyche with moralistic attitudes.
Language can bring people together but can also isolate. The United States is known as a melting pot, not only does that refer to culture but also the many different languages. We know of language barriers, but very seldom do we think of the language barriers within our borders. Even with the language barriers it solidifies the need for a national language, the United States of America should allow the freedom to express one’s culture while maintaining English as our national language, therefore offering common ground to its citizens.
Developing character is something that comes with time. I believe that there are three major things that effect how people develop their character—where they are from, which includes their financial status; how they are raised; and the character of the people that have had the most influence on their lives. Sylvia, in Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson," is very much influenced by all of these factors. Sylvia’s living in the slums and being poor makes her defensive and judgmental. Her parents not being around much leaves her without the attention and discipline that children need to develop to their fullest. Lastly, her friends and Miss Moore also have a great influence on how Sylvia thinks and acts, and lead Sylvia to be observant but also angry and stubborn. All of these characteristics not only determine Sylvia’s personality, but also are the basis for why I think Sylvia will not apply Miss Moore’s lesson.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain is her own story that she wrote about during the Great War otherwise known as World War One. The main theme of her story is the struggles that she had to face, whether it dealt with her family, or her personal goals such as attending college or the world that she was surrounded by. On page 17 Brittain stated that "When the Great War broke out, it came to me not as a superlative tragedy, but as an interruption of the most exasperating kind to my personal plans." Another important aspect of Vera's goals was the aspiration and ambition that she had, that aspiration allowed her to move forward in her life.
To begin with, the reader gets a sense of Sylvia's personality in the beginning of the story as she talks about Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not the typical black woman in the neighborhood. She is well educated and speaks well. She has climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She is a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. Sylvia's opinion of her is not one of fondness. She says that she hates Miss Moore as much as the "winos who pissed on our handball walls and stand up on our hallways and stairs so you couldn't halfway play hide and seek without a god damn mask”(357). By comparing the hatred with something she enjoys, we get to see what a child does in the slums for amusement. Sylvia feels t...
In this course I experienced an important change in my beliefs about teaching; I came to understand that there are many different theories and methods that can be tailored to suit the teacher and the needs of the student. The readings, especially those from Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2011), Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007), and Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C., Nanlohy, P. (2010), have helped me to understand this in particular. In composing my essay about teaching methods and other themes, my learning was solidified, my knowledge deepened by my research and my writing skills honed.