they will blame anything on you just because the color of your skin

Malcolm London uses repetition to get his point across. He says throughout the talk “This is a training ground.” He is saying this is a training ground because everything is staying the same; there is no change happening for the students.

This is a habit that both I and the Silver Creek basketball team are implementing in our state run this year. We are stronger together than individually.

“If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” This is a quote from Jim Valvano’s 1993 ESPY Speech. He was not a scientist, he was a basketball coach. But this quote is something everyone, no matter the profession, should take the heart.

Jayden,

I have also seen many people fall victim to the stresses of life. Escpecially since quarantine has began I have seen many of my friends, and even some myself, go from straight A’s to failing classes. As home life gets more and more difficult, the energy and drive to complete work drastically decreases. We are humans, we can only do so much.

I found it quite moving and unfortunately accurate that he described school as, a building meant for building that only breaks you down. This idea that school is meant to construct, but for many is actually detrimental to their health, be it mental or physical. I find it strange that a place we visit 5 days a week is not entirely beneficial to everyone all the time, and is majorly detrimental to many.

One line from London states that, “Capitalism raises you but you have to step on someone else to get their.” Time and time again we are shown how true this is. In many portions of our life, economic, social, political, ect. we are shown how stepping on people and using them for personal gain will help you succeed in life. Why is this? Why are we almost groomed to believe that the only way to succeed is to tear others down? We can succeed while lifting others, while being a community and working together, as cliche as that sounds. So why is one path so much more prevalent? I believe it may be because it is easier to tear people down than to stick together. It is easier to destroy the bonds than to take the time to form them.

Throughout his TED Talk, London hones in on the idea of separation in schools. The regulars are separated from honors to thin the heard. We are taught AP and honors are the way to college, but no one stops and asks what you want to do. He says “A recurring cycle built to recycle the trash of this system” which hit deep. Students learn about important people who really aren’t that important, but not how to live in the day-to-day. Our lives are controlled by the American Dream, but we are closer to poverty than we are to being millionaires. In America you can be anything you want to be, but not really. This is not saying you cannot start from the bottom and make it to the top, but that there is always someone standing in the way. “You have to step on someone else to get there” is shown everyday, capitalism is built on it. This is evident with most of the one percent and nepotism because you’ll always be stepping on someone else to advance whether malicious or not. It’s like the saying about glass ceilings for women in business, you can see everyone else, but can never get there. It is tiring and stressful with the homework, college, scholarships, and no one is helping. School and education are luxuries to have, however the current system is beyond flawed. Kids get left behind and test scores determine their worth, so what’s left? Obviously everyone has different experiences, but from reading these comments Malcolm London’s view seems pretty accurate.

Malcolm presents with an authenticity that includes language we might not otherwise use in the classroom setting. This piece is not required for your homework but some of you might want to explore the work of the young poet today.

That there are other English classes that one might take. The biggest problem I have found is that we DO NOT have a middle English program. We have ENG11 and AP ENG LANG AND COMP. We have to follow the AP guidelines for the exam. And we have to follow IVY TECH’s guidelines for 111 and 215. The teacher AND the students get pinched in here, but we try to find ways to work into and around the rigidity to be sure that all can have success. My ENG 11 students always learned about Hero’s Journey and Archetypes and Symbols and Rhetoric too. I just don’t have those groups anymore. I’m proud of the work we are doing. It’s hard work. It’s good work.

https://malcolmlondon.com/

“Camouflage worn by bullies who are dangerously harmed but need hugs” A lot of times they’ll say when someone becomes a bully it is often because they are hurting themselves. You will see in movies the “bully” in the film is having family problems at home or is insecure about their body image. It’s because people feel the need to bring people down to their level of insecurity so they can rise above and be superior. Power brings security.

I loved when Malcolm London said “clothes that cover their insecurities, but expose everything else”, because of its accuracy. It is accurate, especially in high school, that people will be talked bad about showing what they’re confident in. In reality, many cover what they do not like, and by showing what they aren’t self-conscious of, they gain confidence in themselves that they would not gain if they covered everything. They would also not gain it if they showed the things they worry about, but this narrative is not pushed. Instead, it is talked about negatively by people who do not want to hear this.

I agree with what you are saying. From the moment classes begin to switch from everyone to honors and regular, it is already clear who’s the “Honors” and who aren’t. All the kids who become the “Honors” get swamped with twice the work as the “Regular” kids. I strongly agree with where you said “Comparing it to a training ground, not seeing the joy learning can have.” The standards and expectations of Honors oppress the spirit and enjoyment of learning things that they find to be interesting.

I agree with what you are saying. There are people who are made to take charge and know what to do. And there are people who know how to use the “template” that the ones who take charge have created.

they still trying to make khalil look like a criminal

while starr taking to the cops they still trying to find a reason to paint khalil as a criminal.

Throughout the ted talk London makes it very clear that our school system has achieved its purpose. To fail so many people and “freeze them”. He also explains that schools pick the best out and leave the rest to fallow and pick up the leftovers from the “honors”. I see this a lot in school a kid who has good test scores and grades will get into college over the kid that is just average but the average kid might have more common sense than the honors kid which would make him smarter in the real world and give him a better chance to succeed but the school system is flawed and has destroyed so many peoples dreams.

I agree with Lucas, but I also think that it can be different in some cases. What I mean by this is where one student might thrive from being taught by a teacher, other students might benefit more from learning on their own. The “Ocean” is a big place to be, and there are lots of different ways to swim. Nowadays, or even back in the day, people have always differed in the ways that they learn and comprehend information. A big problem that I see in Educational Systems is only allowing certain methods of learning in the classroom. To take things back to the swimming analogy, there are 3 main ways I can think of to show how people learn differently. A Tactile or hands-on student would learn better by physically being immersed in the water. A Visually-oriented student could benefit from a video on how to swim or reading a paper about it. And last, but not least, an audio-oriented student might benefit from a podcast or just simply being told how to do it. Students aren’t given the academic freedom that is required for them to be the best student that they could be, and to fully thrive academically in a way that is well-suited to them. Placing labels on students who are “smart” or “dumb” can change the way a student feels about themselves and the way that they learn. What is smart, anyway? Smart is different for everyone. Smart for me could be cooking, but smart for Lucas could be Tennis. Yes, they’re completely different, but it doesn’t mean that either of us are dumb for not knowing how to do the other. I’m not good at Tennis, and Lucas might be bad at cooking. We’re not dumb, we’re just different from each other, and these differences are neither illuminated, nor celebrated in today’s education systems. So let the Tactile learn with their hands. Let the visual students learn from what they see. And let the audio students soak in what they hear, so that they can become the best “swimmers” they can in the “ocean of adolescence.”