“What High School Is” by Theodore Sizer and “Learning to...

Khuong Q Tran Professor Frauenholz English 100, Section NC03 October 15, 2009 â€Å"What High School Is† by Theodore Sizer and â€Å"Learning to Read† by Malcolm X Learning has an important role in human being society. By learning a person can gain more knowledge and understanding in order to contribute to the development of society. Learning can be performed in various ways. Specifically, there are two completely different types of learning that produce strength and weakness based on general educational experience. Mark, a Franklin high school student, is described in â€Å"What High School Is† by Theodore Sizer. On the other hand, Malcolm X, who was convicted of robbery in 1946, came out of jail with the knowledge of Black history and†¦show more content†¦He had specific goal for his reading and learning although he spent seven years in prison. His goal was to serve the black man in term of Black and White separatism in the 1950’s in United States. His meaningful goal led to great reading and learning of certain subjects, such as Black history, Genetics, slavery, Chinese world history and philosophy. Constantly, he sa ys, â€Å"You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man (X 85). Moreover, Malcolm’s education is really an educational experience. Unlike Mark’s education, Malcolm had to begin his fundamental education by learning the vocabulary. Henceforth, he daily spent numerous hours on reading books to gain knowledge and understanding. He himself did that spectacular job without any specific guidance, except for his curiosity only. He said, â€Å"I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity-because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about† (X 85). On the other hand, reading for the sake of knowledge was a significant way to help Malcolm feel a sense of freedom in spite of being in prison. Truly, the more he read, the freer he felt. He concludes that â€Å"I don’t think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensely than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college.† (X 85) In short, Mark represents students’