The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

1081 Words3 Pages

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…

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

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