By any means necessary!
I went from public school to public school during the early years of my life. I used to love school but one day that switched in me and I hated it. My mom says it’s due to this one teacher I had for 2nd grade, Ms. Kendrick is her name. She always spoke to me like I was less than people, she spoke to other children in a soft and kind way but when it came to me it was always aggressive, like she wanted nothing to do with me. Her language had such an effect it led me to have a dislike for school to this day.
Then my family’s building caught fire and we moved from place to place. I ended up in a school in Yonkers, it was filled with anger and hatred, the language being used within these schools amongst 3rd and 4th graders was that of adult and gang language; and it caused the innocence of my mind and other children to be removed which made me see the world in a darker light and use language I should not have been using.
I started to follow others’ paths which would have led me down a path of possible violence and incarceration. My mother pulled me out of school and homeschooled me until 8th grade, and even though it was tedious I went with it and it changed me drastically. I joined a group with other homeschooled kids and the environment transformed me. The foul language used and the way people spoke to each other made me change how I spoke. I stopped using certain words and I carried myself a different way. We still used slang of course, but nobody was screaming “IMA HURT YOU!” “IMA F*** YA MOMS!” “I’LL KILL YOU!”.
My innocence didn’t come back and I didn’t expect it to. But being homeschooled changed the language I used and expanded my knowledge on language.
I went to an all boys Catholic high school as I was tired of being homeschooled, I was excited for high school even though my mom put me into an all boys school because she claimed “Girls are a distraction”. And honestly speaking she’s right.
I walked into my environmental science class and set my eyes upon my South African teacher Mr. Pillay, a short and miserable looking man whenever he taught, but always had a smile when he was with faculty and staff.
We sat in assigned seats and he hollered “NO CLICKER PENS!” in his British accent, we all looked at each other and tried not to laugh at him “NO BINDERS!” “NO KEYS!” “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOUR PHONE!” “ANYTHING DROPS ON THE FLOOR IT’S MINE!” “NOTEBOOKS ONLY!”. We would look at him with disgust on our face, Mr. Pillay trying to be intimidating just made him laughable and a parasite.
The very first class I had with him he asked me a question on the topic we were covering, I didn’t have the answer and he laughed at me and asked me to stand up. I stood up and he said to me “I won’t make it” “You’re going to fail my class!” “You won’t last a week!” “You won’t graduate!”.
When I told my mother and sister they were livid at his language, they wanted to confront him but I stopped them because I knew I would make him eat his words. Even though he made it hard for me; and I had to argue and raise my voice for him to pass me when he tried to fail me purposely. I passed his class, I didn’t go to summer school, I obtained higher grades than he said I would, ultimately I made him eat his words and made sure he saw me as I received my diploma on graduation day. Language can have a positive or negative effect on people, the words you say to someone to discourage them to do better in school or apply to a job, etc.
Language can remove the innocence from a child’s mind. Through all the degrading and vulgar language I’ve heard a quote that really kept me through it all is “By any means necessary!” Malcolm X, which I interpret as achieving your success “By any means necessary!” whether that is a plumber, teacher, painter, or doctor. And not letting anyone define who you are or determine your future.