Malcolm X is both controversial and inspiring in his essay “Learning to Read.” He is jailed in 1946 for robbery and spends seven years in prison. He first begins reading books because of his envy towards a prison

Today, education is still very much implemented into everyday life. Parents are encouraged to play an active role in their children’s education. Students have the opportunity to take advantage of many school programs that offer tutoring, career opportunities, clubs and much more. Despite all these activities that Malcolm would claim distracting, there have been many successful students who graduate high school and go on to graduate college and even continue through graduate school. These extra activities are seen as helpful to strengthen a student’s capabilities of succeeding in the real world. Yet it is not always on school grounds that educational success is found. It is in one’s environment that one can find the road to success.

I learn from both Rodriguez and Malcolm X that their environment led them to be the way they are. Rodriguez grows up in a minority class with parents who do not speak English very well. Because of their lack of education, Rodriguez goes to the one who he sees fit as educators, his teachers. Through them he finds his motivation. With Malcolm X, his time in penitentiary has given him the chance to change his life. Through the books he reads, he finds the answers to his anger, and thus is motivated to learn more. This concept of environmental motivation is present everywhere from social groups to watching television. What we watch on television has an effect on how we may act. The friends one may be in a relationship with, motivates how a person may act in that social group just to fit in. What can be learned from all of this is that because environment affects a person so much, one should be in an environment where it is healthy to pursue what one wants in order to be successful. If one wants to go to college and get a career, then one should be in a school where the journey of knowledge is greatly encouraged. Webster also defines environment as “the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community.” Now then, it is evident that one should consider the conditions that are present when journeying through the road to success.

Rodriguez’s environment is full of people who care about him, yet he gradually lets go of his family life, and grasps onto the teachings of his teachers and his textbooks. He believes everything his

Some topics in this essay:
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