Malcolm X's "Learning to Read"

     As a young American, I know for a fact that I take my own ability to read, write and communicate for granted. I was raised by well spoken, college-educated parents, and learned to speak from them. I’ve been to school every year of my life since the age of five. Reading and writing, though originally difficult for me to grasp as a child, have since become such an integral part of myself that imaging my own existence without them is impossible. In fact, the very idea of illiteracy is somewhat horrifying to me.
    Thus, Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” was a very intriguing and enlightening piece. It highlights difficulty and dedication, as well as accentuating the importance of being literate. I can connect with his original frustration as I myself had extreme difficulty when first learning, but beyond that, his process amazes me. The time and effort it must have taken him to copy, word for word, entire pages of a dictionary is astounding. That kind of patience is beyond me. I can hardly even listen to my favorite song, start to finish, let alone maintain the focus required to extensively copy a droll dictionary. Just this simple act showed a strong will and a mind not only willing to, but excited to learn and improve.
    His example of dedication and self-improvement is one that I believe my peers and I can all learn from. In a society that demands—and expects—speed, efficacy and constant entertainment, the simple strength of focused learning is becoming somewhat obsolete. Information is so readily available that taking the time to pour over and truly master it seems redundant (and boring) to the modern American teen. Why actually read a classic when you can get all the important stuff after a few minutes on Google? Why delve deep into the intricacy of a philosopher’s ideas when you can easily get the highlights off the internet—or more likely, simply never learn it at all? This kind of a pervasive attitude of complacency is what made this piece stand out so significantly. It gave an  example of how things used to be, and how, hopefully they can be again.