Literacy Autobiography Introduction

Introduction

            When I think of my defining Literacy moment, it makes me think about how neglectful the Huntington Public School system was to not just me but the entire student community in general. Any kid that didn’t want to learn really didn’t have to as those kids were cast aside and most of them really dropped out. If you wanted to take shortcuts in school more often than not you would get away with it. While that sounds good to a kid who would much rather play outside when he gets home instead of doing his homework, it really will cost kids when they are not able to do the work when they get outside of school into college or jobs in “the real world”. It’s never easy to complete a tough assignment and when I was growing up in school if a teacher didn’t nag you to do it, or have you come in and have rough drafts so they could see where you were more often than not the assignment wasn’t done the way the teacher wanted.  Maybe I’m not giving Huntington High School as a lot of smart kids came out if their but I think that reflects more on them and not the public school system. Are all schools like that? Maybe but being in the same school system from kindergarten until senior year there is absolutely no way for me to know that. My years in Huntington High School were very memorable where I learned a lot, but most of those lessons I learned weren’t taught to me by teachers. There were definitely some memorable teachers there that taught me some valuable life lessons that won’t ever forget however a majority of the teachers weren’t interested in teaching life lessons. As long as they went over the material and somebody understood it they felt as if they did their job that school semester. I always recall them talking about “going the extra mile”. It would be nice if more teacher back home on Long Island in Huntington High School followed that model. If you’re going to ask Huntington High School to attempt to make a bigger impact on the kids that go there, it will have to work from the ground up. The elementary, middle and primary schools must also do a better job. That is where my defining literacy moment starts at Flower Hill Primary school.