“Learning to Read” excerpt

In the excerpt “Learning to Read” from “The Autobiography of Malcolm X “, I came to discover Malcolm X’s journey of reading and understanding. His overall curiosity and willingness to learn starting with a fundamental tool such as a dictionary and studying it in order for him to become knowledgeable of words and their different meanings is truly what made a strong impression on me. Malcolm didn’t let his circumstances nor surroundings in prison define him. Instead, he took advantage of it spending his sole time studying the dictionary and improving his writing skills by copying everything he was seeing down. Ultimately, that guided him to expand his knowledge on topics that he once was incapable of comprehending . Malcolm X is known to be a highly intelligent individual. I always figured he had some sort of high education. However, it surprised me how he didn’t even make it past middle school. I am truly fascinated that Malcolm didn’t receive a full proper school education. All that he knows was self-taught, referring to “a homemade education”. What I can make of the authors description of “a homemade education” is that it’s one that you create for yourself. One that caters to you as an individual and your needs based on what we know, don’t know, and want to know. It’s a kind of education that you solely curate and teach yourself on your own terms. Based on self – determination, passion, and drive. The element I can identify within this narrative is that when I put my mind toward a certain goal or objective I don’t give up no matter how hard it gets or if it may seem impossible. I feel like Malcolm had the same mentality. He was eager to learn how to become literate and gain knowledge even if it was going to be long journey. He ended up achieving that and so much more as time passed.