How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
This was my first lesson about gambling: if you see somebody winning all the time, he isn't gambling, he's cheating. (1.70)
Gambling is probably not the first thing that pops into your mind when you think about lessons, but education doesn't have to happen in the classroom.
Quote #2
Later, I remember, we came to the textbook section on Negro history. It was exactly one paragraph long. Mr. Williams laughed through it practically in a single breath, reading aloud how the Negroes had been slaves and then were freed, and how they were usually lazy and dumb and shiftless. (2.32)
How do you think the majority of African American children would have reacted to this kind of history class? How would it have influenced their views of traditional education?
Quote #3
It was a surprising thing that I had never thought of it that way before, but I realized that whatever I wasn't, I was smarter than nearly all of those white kids. But apparently I was still not intelligent enough, in their eyes, to become whatever I wanted to be. (2.77)
Malcolm X was actually the valedictorian of his school, so it's doubly insulting that his teacher implied he wasn't smart enough to be a lawyer while all of the white children were encouraged to follow their dreams.