A Young Child Growing Up

As I was growing up there were eight of us in the house and my mother took care of us all by herself. I was the second child. When she took us to school, she stayed there the whole day volunteering in the school until it was time for us to get out.

When I was in second grade I stopped doing my school work, because I didn’t like going to school; so I would just sit there. I was not doing my class assignment work until my mother came to volunteer in my class. Then I would start doing it because I knew she was there. I learned when I was going to school that I didn’t know how to read or spell, so my mother used to have me to read books ever night for 30 min until I would understand what the words meant. I learned how to take my time.

            One thing I have learned is that I should have stayed in school when I was young, because I see that it was easier for me to learn when I was younger and my mom was there to help. When I was growing up I didn’t have to worry about my mother taking care of all eight of her children. She didn’t have to worry about finding a babysitter like I do now.  It’s going to be hard for people. You will have to pay more money for everything you want. Therefore, you should stay in school till you reach your goal. So that in the future you will have the things you need to live off of in life. So I will make it everything and the world to give my G.E.D. So once you start going to school, stick with it until you get your diploma or GED.

A Young Girl's Lesson

Annie, a little girl, the oldest of eleven children, lived in a house on Douglas and Homan in the city of Chicago with her family. She lived with her grandma, grandpa, mom, and her seven brothers, and four sisters. It was in a nice neighborhood with lots of churches and stores. The people in the neighborhood were very friendly. With her big family and nice neighbors, there was never a dull moment. As she began to get older going to school was getting harder, because Annie had to babysit her sisters and brothers. As time went by, her mom would get sick, and she had to tend to her sisters and brothers. She started to hang out with girls that were different than the way she was raised. They even dressed different than the way she did. Wanting to be accepted, by her peers, she started to hang out with them.

She felt like she was being too protected by her parents, so she left home and her mom was very angry! She looked to her friends as her second sisters and brothers then she started to like boys. She wanted to be accepted by her peers. That changed everything when she visited home to see her mama. There were lots of arguments. She turned to a boyfriend for comfort only to find out that he could not solve her problems. She ended up getting pregnant, first problem. Second problem was that she had to have baby’s pampers, milk and clothing. Her mother still needed help with Annie’s brothers and sisters. She still needed Annie’s help with dressing and feeding them, so Annie decided to go back home.

No matter what was going on, Annie’s mama said she understood that it was hard to go to school with helping her, but she that must still try to go. Her mother said that when she was a child her parents needed her to help by going to work in the field to pick cotton, so she did not have a chance to go to school. She wanted Annie to not to have a hard life like that, because she had to work in the fields, going to the white people’s houses to clean. Annie’s mother made her feel bad about having a baby so young. She said she needed Annie’s help sometimes, but never intended for her to stop going to school. By not listening, Annie found herself working, taking care of two children, and a home. When she finally realized what she was saying the damage was done, but what she said was still true. Now Annie had a chance to talk to other young girls who are at home with their moms and want to finish school.

Finally, she wanted young people to know that there are many things that can get in the way when trying to go school, but don’t stop trying to get a career in some field to support you. Mama influenced Annie to keep trying even though many people have told her she should give up. She now has enrolled in a Garfield Learning Center.  Influenced by her mother, with the help of many good teachers has made her feel better about her life. The staff at Family Start Learning Center has helped her with my reading, writing, and math.

The Right Thing to do

My name is Sheketa and I attend school at 10 S. Kedzie. I am going to school to get my GED diploma. I live across the street from my school. I have two teachers there. One of my teachers, who teaches math, is named Mr. Nathan. My other teacher’s name is Ms. Rachael; she’s my reading teacher. I have great classmates. One of my classmate’s name is Mr. Grandberry. Mr. Grandberry and I had a little altercation while answering a question Ms. Rachael had asked the classroom. He lives here in Chicago and is a great student. Things kind of got off on the wrong foot with us that day.

                Ms. Rachael decided to ask us questions about the book, The Kite Runner, we were reading in class. I was anxious to answer before she could call on someone else. I wanted to be the first to answer the question, so I yelled out the answer to the question. She replied and said, “no I want Mr. Grandberry to give me the answer”. I got mad and got out my chair and walked out of the classroom while mumbling mean words.

                When I left out the classroom, I went to sit in the office. I needed to go calm down from how angry I was. Ms. Rachael came in 5 minutes later and sat next to me. She asked me if I wanted to talk about what had happened. I replied, “no, not really.” Then she said, “Maybe you need some time to yourself to be alone”; I agreed. When she walked out to go back to the classroom, I realized deep down I really did want to talk. I had seen that she had cared. After I had a talk with Ms. Gwen (the lady in the office who always sat at the front desk) I felt a little better. I had learned that it’s always good to talk to someone about a situation that is bothering you. It helps you feel better. So, the next day, I came to school feeling much better. I couldn’t wait to see my teacher to apologize to her for how I reacted. When I saw Ms. Rachael, I apologized to her in front of the whole class. She said thank you Sheketa that was nice. Also, later that afternoon, my classmate Mr. Grandberry apologized to me. He said “he apologizes if he made me angry and that he wasn’t trying to make me feel bad”. I told him “thank you Grandberry, it’s ok.”

The most important lesson that I have learned that could help someone else is to always talk about your problems. This would help others if they are in a situation like this, if they are having problems with someone and need to talk about what happened. This was an important lesson that I have learned that can really help someone else.

Update! New writing coming soon!

Hello Readers,

We have a new batch of student writing that will be published this week. Students have been working on personal narratives on the topic, "what is a lesson that you learned that could help someone else." The students have completed at least 3 drafts of these narratives! I hope you enjoy.

The March on Washington 1963

Did you ever wonder what happened in the Civil Right era? I wrote my report on the March on Washington, and it changed everything for every African American in every corner of the world.

         The March on Washington occurred in the summer of 1963, shortly after the Birmingham Campaign, which was an effort to break segregation in the largest urban areas. Over 200,000 African Americans marched to Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. As a result, the March on Washington is credited for creating a political platform for African Americans to finally have the Civil and Voting Rights in the mid-1960s.

          In 1963, racism was everywhere. Very few white and black got along. They even had separate washrooms, drinking fountains, schools, and stores. If you were an African American on the bus with Caucasians and you were sitting down and they weren’t, you had to give up your seat and move to the back. Blacks were beaten by White citizens and even the police, and they never got justice. Even judges were racist. Blacks couldn’t even vote, nor could they work, and they were getting fed up. In the winter of 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. asked President John F. Kennedy to release a new, fair Emancipation Proclamation, but the president disagreed and caused the March on Washington to begin.

          In the summer of 1961, a man named Philip Randolph decided to get 100,000 African Americans to circle around the Capitol, but some disagreed due to the fact that they feared what the government would do in retaliation. But, Franklin D. Roosevelt ended up signing the Executive Order 8802 which forced racist whites to open the job market to black people. Since the job market was now opened, Randolph decided the march wasn’t necessary. On August 28, 1963, 200,000+ demonstrators marched to Washington to Lincoln’s Monument for the 3^rd anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education and they had a prayer pilgrimage, and it is also the same day King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

          As a result, King met up with President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at the white house where they discussed a need for two parties to support civil rights. Even though it wasn’t passed until President Kennedy died, which was the Civil Rights of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Brown V. Board

Can you imagine having to walk several miles just to get to school, when there’s a school directly across the street from where you live? African Americans had to do this for a very long time, until The Brown V. Board of Education was passed in 1954. This paper will discuss the causes and effect of the Brown V. Board of Education case and the effort to end desegregation.

Even after slaves were free and were able to vote, there was still segregation. Due to the Jim Crow Laws, blacks and whites weren’t able to use the same public facilities, ride the same buses and attend the same schools. During this time blacks were poor, with not enough books for learning with a class seating 40-50 students a class. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) tried to persuade congress and other legislative bodies to enact laws that would protect from lynching and other racist activity

Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, was the father of Linda Brown. Linda Brown had been denied from a school just five blocks away from her home and had to travel a long way to attend school where she was accepted, because of her race. Oliver Brown decided to sue the school district of Topeka, Kansas to end segregation. The case started in 1952, was heard and then eventually elevated to the supreme courts. The Supreme Court came to a unanimous decision to end segregation in public schools.

In 1954, The Brown V. Board of Education case was solved. There would be no more segregation within the schools; those cases were handled by NAACP and Thurgood Marshall. Kenneth Clark argued that segregated school systems made black children feel lower than white children and felt that, that shouldn’t been allowed. After the attorney generals of the states failed to desegregate schools quickly enough, the Supreme Court was forced to come up with a plan on how to do it in 1955. This ruling became known as Brown II

In conclusion, traveling far just to attend school had finally ended. I was able to attend schools where ever I wanted. Several laws were even passed; there would be no more segregation between whites and blacks. Everyone was to be treated equal under the law.

Monique 10/23/14

Cotton Gin

Have you ever wondered how we are able to get the things we use daily made of cotton, don’t worry here’s the answer!

 The creation of the cotton gin is important because it helped the farmers separate the seed from the cotton. This was a difficult thing to do because the seeds were buried inside of the cotton. Eli Whitney realized that the slaves had a difficult time picking the seeds from the cotton bolls. He accepted an invitation to stay with Catherine Greene who was the widow of an American Revolutionary War general near Savannah Georgia. While there Whitney learned of the production of cotton, and how the farmers faced hard times making a living not being able to pick the cotton faster. He decided to put together a simple invention to make it easier for the slaves to separate the seed from the cotton bolls in a shorter amount of time. Whitney worked on getting a patent for his invention that he planned to build and install throughout the south. The production of cotton increased in the south. The number of slaves and need for them also increased in the United States. This was all brought about because, in 1794, Eli Whitney patented a very simple machine, the cotton gin.

The farmers were excited about the idea of Whitney’s invention that could improve the production of cotton surprising, since they had no intentions sharing any of their percentage or profits with him. So, Whitney found out in that time the patent laws had loopholes that would make it hard to protect his rights as an inventor. However, the cotton gin still transformed and increased the production of cotton in the American economy.

The production of cotton increased in the south which made cotton a cash crop by 1860. The number of slaves in the United States had increased. Although the cotton gin made the process less labor-intensive, Farmers earned more profits which led to grow larger crops which required more slaves were a cheaper form of labor. The southern economy depended on cotton and slavery, and continued to hold onto their social order. However, the northerners focused more on industry than agriculture, which in turn made a difference in the two economies. Whitney had no idea that his invention would affect slavery in a negative way.

    This paper is about the importance of Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. As a result of Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, today we have many things made from cotton.

Gloria 10/23/14