The Indian kids crowd the classroom. Many are writing their own poems, short stories and novels. They have read my books. They have readmany other books. They look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder.
A lot of minority groups can relate to this writing and how motivated it can make you to take your education seriously for people who don't have the opportunity to. Whether it's your family members or your peers who have a job or other things to be more worried about than education.
This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly. He reads "Grapes of Wrath" inkindergarten when other children are struggling through "Dick and Jane." If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might havebeen called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who often speaks of his childhood in thethird-person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents
It's inspiring that he kept working hard for his education even though his efforts were never even acknowledged. It's hard to be motivated when you feel like you were born into a society who constantly doubts you.
He bought his books by the pound at Dutch's Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army andValue Village. When he had extra money, he bought new novels at supermarkets, convenience stores and hospital gift shops. Our house was filled with books.They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms and living room.
I can connect with this because my mom has always had a love for reading but growing up she didn't have a lot of money, so she relied on thrift stores as well
We were poor by most standards, butone of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother andthree sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food
In low income homes, knowledge of any kind is so important. Learning to read from comic books or any form of advertisement is inspiring.