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lukevhrqvbfi4things-blog · 6 years ago

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Big Ole Alphabiography

A for AR

When I think back to my elementary school AR tests I shuter. These things taught me to use spark notes on almost almost all the books I “read” in lower school. I was required to meet my quota of “accelerated reading” tests or risk failing my english class. This caused a great deal of stress in my reading life to a degree that I did not read a single book between my third and seventh grade years. These tests were probably helpful to some, but they were extremely detrimental to my resolve to read anything of length. I recognise now that they might be helpful on a grand scale and if so they should continue without much concern for those such as myself who simply go around the tests.

B for Beowulf

I loved reading Beowulf somewhat because of the teacher I had that taught it, but also because it’s just such a ridiculous tale that was probably based on true events at the time of its birth. The style of the epic is so extremely different from what I am used to reading for school. It is a simple story about a comically powerful hero that seems remarkably similar to super heros of present. This is so refreshing after being bombarded with complex stories that are well written and decent at sending a message, but generally require that the reader think a lot in order to be entertained. Sometimes simple makes the best.

P is for Procrastination

I do not believe that I have ever completed a school paper before the day it was due. This has never gone badly in my experience but then again they probably could have been much better had I at least started to research before the due date. Never the less my papers were always towards the top of my class despite my procrastination. I probably could have been in the top ten of my class in English had I ever started a paper before the due date. Well if the papers had been worth more on the grading scale anyway.

Q is for Question

Q is for all the questions I’ve asked over the years. I believe asking questions is generally a positive thing in the pursuit of knowledge. Looking back I think I use to ask a lot more questions about English but as I’ve aged I’ve become more custom to all the facets of the English language as ridiculously over complicated as it is. Well it might not be over complicated maybe just complex enough to describe all the things that we need it to describe. Most questions about English I ask now a days I ask myself or a book as I have reached a level that most people would not know the answers to my questions off the tops of their heads and would have to do the same.

U is for Unfortunate Events

“A Series of Unfortunate Events” had a rather large influence on me as far as reading is concerned. It helped me to greatly increase my vocabulary and knowledge of the wider world. I liked reading this series a lot or listening to it at least as I used audio books on almost the entire series. As I’ve said before I don’t really care for reading in the traditional since when its for pleasure. This series was no doubt crucial in the development of my mind as I couldn’t put them down when I got a hold of them and they seemed fairly educational too.

V is for Variety

I did not use to read a very large variety of books as a kid in fact I didn’t even read a vary large quantity of books. I did read just not books because I discovered online summaries of the books that I was being made to read for no reason that I could see at the time. As I’ve said before I kinda cheated the AR tests in this way. I may not have liked reading before elementary school but after it I hated it. I recognize the utility in doing this as a kid now but educators should recognize that their students will not necessarily complete their assignments as intended but will do it in the easiest fastest way they know how.

W is for Writing

Writing as a child was not pleasant to me even if it is a good thing I did not like it possibly only because I had no choice in the matter. I hated it especially when I had to hand write something long and tedious that could easily be typed at a much faster rate. I just really didn't want to do what I was being told to do despite me it helping to improve the strength in my writing hand. As a child I must have been very spoiled to not appreciate what the teachers were doing for me in making me write things repeatedly.

X is for MalcomX

MalcomX is a very interesting character that have done only a little reading on, but I intend to do much more to have a better understanding of where he is coming from. He only lived publicly for a very short time in comparisons with some others, but he did a lot with the time he had. Reading him has made me want to read more. His writings have peaked an interest in understanding the civil rights movement much more than my gym teacher who taught history back in high school ever could have.

Y is for Yams

I remember recently be made to read some African folk tales in which yams were a key point of the plot. It can be said without complete uncertainty that this was a collection of stories that followed the adventures of Annuncy the Spider. These were some interesting stories to be sure and they were my first exposure to literature from subsaharan Africa. They are a window into the past of these placing helping to explain how those from that area in olden times thought. This collection helps to illustrate how even thousands of miles away humans will write similar stories with similar themes.

Z is for Anglo-Zulu Wars

As a child I liked to read a lot of history one of the things I read about was the Anglo-Zulu wars. This encouraged me to read more about this subject and learn about all the little details that are associated with this period in history. I don't think this was the most sophisticated thing to read about but its what peaked my interest as a kid so I read all I could get a hold of. This was probably a positive influence on my literacy because the mentality that I've been taught is that all reading is good no matter what its about.

N is for Nerds

The stigma of nerd did in fact keep younger me from reading a lot as I was afraid of acquiring the reputation. I know it seems silly in the face of the hardships of some, but I was asked to write a literary history of myself and I deem this to be a notable event. This seemingly insignificant label kept me from experiencing the great joy that is reading until my high school years were I stoped caring about the opinions of my classmates nearly as much as I did in middle school. I can't even begin to imagine what I missed as a child from being afraid of being labeled a nerd.

O is for October

October is the spooky month and thus encouraged me to consume lots of spooky literature in my more formative years. I loved Halloween and that love extended to all the things concerning it including the unexpectedly large amount of literature surrounding the subject. I read all the old tales from days gone by during this season. Truth be told though I really listen to most of them as reading takes substantially more effort to do than listening. It should always be remembered that one should always take the easiest path the goal that still keeps some mind for the consequences of the actions to achieve the goal.

C is for Cucumber

One of my english teachers of the past was called Ms McCumber and she gained the nickname Ms Cucumber because she was not liked well by her students and we weren’t that creative with our nicknames. I’m pretty sure she was the head of the english department while I was in high school and possibly solely responsible for the horror that was writing Wednesdays as I think I disgust in an earlier in an earlier installment. I also remember doing a lot of crossword puzzles in her class which was kinda strange in this authors humble opinion. Her class just kinda bored me so I stopped paying attention in it after a while. This was just kind of a gap in my english education not really that detrimental because it was high school English, But I wish had done something worth remembering in that class.

D is for Donald

There are many well knows donalds in this world, but by far the most influential to me is donald duck. I used to be obsessed with him and his exploits. He was always so angry which made him such an intriguing character which caused me to read more about him. This was a very healthy experience for my literacy life. It got me to read if only for a brief time for pleasure. That has been deemed a great good by most of my english teachers so i shall say this is a healthy reading experience.

E is for Elephant

When I was young I became fascinated by the elephant and all the things about it after reading an article in an encyclopedia about them. This magnificent grey beast captured young me's imagination for a few weeks and caused me to read all manner of information about the creature. I would venture too say this is unhealthy literacy because of the lack of variety in the material. This experience did teach me a lot about the elephant and about time management as I failed several tests during this period. I learned that obsessions can lead to academic failures if left unchecked.

F is for Father

My father was a great influence on the development of my reading abilities and my character. He taught me that you just need to stick with it and it will get easier. Well this wasn’t so much about reading as it was about the use of hand tools, but I think its applicable here. I’ve heard many call it grit which has gotten a little bit cliché, but regardless of clichèness this concept still applies and in more than just reading. It is necessary for success in any skill.

G is for Giles

I had a religion teacher called Mrs Giles my freshmen year of high school. This was a private school and theology was pretty much a bible study class unworthy of the name theology. The reason this woman was so influential in the development of my reading and writing skills is because of how she taught. She had a less ridged approach to teaching than most of my teachers. Her methods were more focused on interpretation of the material rather than getting the "correct" interpretation that all the other teachers that required reading seemed to be after. You could not outright oppose the "correct" interpretation as it is a private school, but you could get pretty close.

H is for Hughs

I once had a gym teacher called Mr Hughs and you may ask yourself what could a gym teacher possibly teach about literature. He taught perseverance in a way that stuck unlike most teachers who preached it endlessly, but were never really all that convincing. What he did differently was lead by example which is hilarious if one thinks about it to much because most gym teachers have grown far beyond being able to do what their students can do. He was just inspiring and seemed to practice what he preached in stark contrast to almost all others.

J is for Jolly

I once met knew a priest called Jolly. He had a tremendous influence on my literacy as I was first learning to read and write. We did not know each other by most peoples definition of the word, but he was inspiring that he was from such a far off land and had learned a different language just to come here. I think he was the first true foreigner I encountered in my life at the time. I remember My mother hating his thick accent because she could not understand what he was saying. I was young though and thus more able to understand new things so I liked when talked about growing up in India. If he could learn two languages then I could certainly learn one.

I is for Ignorance

Being ignorant is very often thought of as a terrible thing. Well I believe it is at least to be ignorant of thing that one ought to know already. In that case it is a sign of laziness or at least lack of intelligence meaning here the capacity for learning new things. I have a deep love of learning new things mostly on my own as I find it more entertaining that way. Dialogue is a necessary test to see if there is truth to what I have learnt on my own. As is apparent in class I am probably ignorant for the most part when it comes to race. I would love to learn more about it and see if there is any truth to what the the classes general ideas on the subject are, but I must not trouble myself with such things as much as I enjoy it because it would distract me from my major. This is the new frontier of my literacy narrative.

K is for Kathman

I once had a theater teacher called Mr Kathman. He didn't really teach us a whole lot in the traditional since. He gave us a task to complete and didn't really tell us how to complete it he just told us how not to complete it ie safety. For most of the class it wasn't really theater or even really a class it was a source of labor for the construction of play sets. We were not opposed to it as we got to get out of real classes, but I think it taught many some important skills in working together that group activities in legitimate classrooms just don't. This relates to my literacy because this working together to come up with solutions can be applied to the interpretations of writings.

L is for Leviticus

Leviticus was a very influential book of the bible on me as a child. It was a great source of misinterpretations for young me to try and interpret correctly. It was a large source of frustration for my various religion teachers who just wanted me to obey them and parrot what they say. I make a bad parrot and thus did not do terribly well in those class without receiving an explanation for things that were apparently "universal truths" that were aperient to all creatures. Going through this book in class is one of the first examples I can think of of young me questioning what I was reading.

M is for Morris

The principal at my old high school was called Ms Morris. She was not a very present principal as it was rather difficult to find her and she was rarely seen at school events. I'm really not completely sure what kind of effect this had on my literacy, but I know it had an effect. I know this by the fact that one year we went though three different English teachers. This lack of a continuous teaching style proved hugely detrimental to the performance of the class and the development of my literacy. It distracted us from learning in favor worrying about the instability of the environment we were in.

R is for Red

Red specifically referring to Clifford the Big Red Dog who I grew up reading and watching on PBS. It was such a simple story in every single book, but it taught me a lot about how to persevere through tougher reading. Clifford was always so optimistic and did his best to overcome his problems. He always did which may or may not have been a good influence on young me as if I had failed a lot I would have wondered why a great red dog could do better than me. I did not prove to be bad at school though so this was only a confidence booster that helped me to not be anxious ever.

S is for Source Citing

Citing sources was probably the most painful part of formal writing that I did in high school. I don't really have an objection to crediting people for there work, but I had to meet a quota of direct quotes from the works. This was just a little bit ridiculous to ask for the students to quote sources that were already secondary. It might have been a little bit different had the audience been familiar with the source being cited or the source was primary and genuinely contributed to the integrity of the paper, but they were just forced with little purpose other than to fulfill the quota.

T is for Tumblr

I have always shied away from Tumblr in the past because of its sketchy reputation. From what I’ve seen in this class it’s reputation of being porn is only a slight exaggeration of what it really is. Hopefully this writing project will serve to dilute the filth that is Tumblr if only for a very small amount. This is probably healthy writing as its much need practice for one such as myself who hasn't written an academic paper sense 2018. It also helps to highlight to me all the things that have influenced my literacy over the course of my life. This is a very good exercise in self reflection that I am unlikely to have done without it being mandated by my English class.

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