Positive Growth Starts With Us
Baldwin stated, “The paradox of education is precisely this- that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated”(p.1). This helps to mean that when someone becomes educated they are able to observe and analyze the society in which they live in. By doing this, they have the choice of either being silent and afraid or spoken and making a difference. Education is only the stepping stone to find your own confidence within yourself to make your own opinions, and believe in them without being persuaded by others. Jose Angel N spoke about the myth that the United States promotes the “cup of promise” because he and so many others came to America to pursue the economic growth for themselves and change their lives. Which of course many of them do, but at any moment that opportunity can be ripped away due to the United States not evolving with their mantra that makes the United States. We are the country of opportunities and freedom yet we can’t even let the voices of those in it be heard and instead revoke them from their hidden places and kick them out as if our country is no longer free but is expensive. Now Audre Lord says, “I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am woman, because I am Black because I am lesbian, because I am myself — a Black woman warrior poet doing my word- come to ask you, are you doing yours”(p.1–2). She spoke and really connected Baldwin and Jose’s objectives. She is a poet who is educated and uses her words to speak out about those in silence only live in fear and we have to learn how to speak out that fear and face them like a warrior. This also connects to Jose because it shows she was a warrior. She knew she was never supposed to survive with her malignant tumor, but she did. She lived on through the unfairness in her life, from being sick to her race to her sexuality, but she fought through. She never believed in the sup of promise in the first place because she saw through the lies of the materialistic things and can see how America is growing in a negative way. She can tell how America is feeding off the unspoken fears to manipulate its population, and she is advocating for those who fit perfectly into the category of people who are judged by others who need to speak up because they are the people who can fight the stereotype. She speaks how to stop Negative growth of America is to turn the bias around and let the voices that make up the United States speak, and face the fear of change to turn the negatives into positives.
ESL Adult classes because I can see how the people there are using their education and learning a language to advocate for themselves and what they believe in. Jose wrote about his own experience at ESL and said,
“While attending an ESL course, I found out that I could also take GED classes to earn a high-school diploma, something that, due to my economic situation, I could never have dreamed of doing in my home country. But I still had no illusions of ever pursuing higher education. Only after a summer clearing tables with some American college kids, who were far from becoming geniuses, did I decide to approach the local community college and apply for entrance. Without realizing it, by taking this short trip up 111th Street, I began to follow the mythological route of American success — like the Pilgrims and the pioneers, I headed west, where the sun dies and dreams are reborn. It is thanks to an American community college that I realized that words can and do emancipate. Not as some epiphany that suddenly delivers one from poverty and obscurity, but as a slow and unexpected process, first nourishing, then questioning” (p.1).
He used ESL as a stepping stone to fight for something that he believed he can achieve. That is what the adults are doing in this class except they add a little of Baldwin and Lorde’s teachings. They know that they are the outcasts in society but they are learning English to face the fears of others and show that they can make a change for their own lives. Most are women in the class and they are fierce and determined to learn this language and use Baldwin’s teachings of broadening their education in order to observe the world around them better and come to their p=own conclusion of what they want to do to fight for a better world.
I feel my responsibility as an educated person is to fight the negative growth of our country. In my generation, I feel as if we are very open to the idea of diversity and hopefully can change the direction of growth but there are still people who don’t see it the same as I do. There are people who manipulate the biases. Like Jose said, “The belief in growth, like all convictions, is not without its ironies” (p.1). To grow you will also shrink. The line isn’t going to perfectly go straight up, it takes time and troubles where it might falter but you have to use your language and words to stand up for what you believe in despite the good and evil. Jose has experienced both the good and bad and saw how humanity is losing but it’s up to myself and my generation t change that with the education we received and the experiences we’ve observed. It’s up to us reject the negative and promote the positive. Face the fears. Speak to our opinions. Make change.
