Comparing Fredrick Douglass 'Ability To Read And Write'

Improved Essays
Aakash Kapoor
Prof. Dingman
WR 201
2-5PM T/TH
The Ability to Read and Write

Being able to read and write are a huge role play in a person’s life. The ability to read and write is becoming so scarce in today’s generation. In the essay “Learning to read and write”, by Fredrick Douglass, narrates his own story about how he learned to read and write during his years living at Master Hugh’s house, while being owned by them. Mrs. Hugh’s helped Douglass learn to read, but she eventually gave the same attitude towards slave as her husband did, and she eventually tried to stop Fredrick from reading anymore. Fredrick would not stop from finding ways to get help so he can read more. He would ask white children to help him read with the book he would carry with him. Fredrick always wanted to find more ways to get more educated after his mistress becomes as ignorant as her husband is towards
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Growth mindset means the ability to learn from your mistakes and to improve on them. For example, if one was to fail at something, they would try many new ways to prevent themselves from failing again. He/she would try harder to improve their skills in which they can improve their chances of doing better. In the other hand, fixed mindset is the complete opposite. Fixed mindset is the state of mind in which a person who fails feels ashamed and does not do anything to improve themselves. For example, if one did fail on a test, they would not try to study harder, in fact they would just rub it off their shoulders like it was no big deal. Douglas shows many examples of these through his journey of learning to read and write. “The Significance of Grit”, by Deborah Perkins-Gough, talks about these mindsets and how these can affects one’s learning abilities. Angela Lee, the person who made the case study, says that, “The attitude “I can get better if I try harder" should help make you a tenacious, determined, hard-working person.”

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