The Lesson By Toni Bambara Analysis

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Michael Tonsi Valarie Thomas English 1102 15 February 2013 Ramifications of Poverty All people want the right to a decent life and education, no one argues that. Not everyone grows up the same way or with the same privileges, which is generally understood. In Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson”, a group of young children are growing up in poverty when an educator creates the environment to help them not only discover, but succeed in learning some very important issues about their immediate world around them. Miss Moore provides the motivation required for people to realize their god given right to something better. Readers realize that Miss. Moore has a college degree, is well dressed most of the time, and has a good grasp on her dialect. She…show more content…
Logically if an overwhelming majority of the poor in the US are black, and since poverty causes crime, then a lot of the criminals are black. Obviously, it’s the same in any country. Claiming that poverty causes crime does mean that the poor are criminals. That's because the word "criminal" implies a moral value; "he's a bad person", while it should in fact be more of a social issue. What's even worse is that the habit of long-term jail sentences in the US has completely wiped out any chance of ever getting a job again for most of these people. "If they are not educated, they don't have a choice anymore. If you can't read at a ninth grade level, you can't get out of poverty” (Payne). When the children where entering the toy store, the first thing that pops out of Sugars mouth is, “Can we steal?”(Bambara). The children would not have to steal objects if their parents had better jobs and better educated. Some states in the US even start releasing prisoners on parole or probation without real motive but to cut spending. Over the long run it costs less to give them an education for 10 years than to keep them in jail for
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