How Kids can and should be able to Handle the Classics of this World

When I was in elementary school, I was not  an avid reader, especially when you compare me today with my younger self. However, I still read enough for me to be considered slightly above the reading average of my grade. The way that teachers would determine your reading level would be by you reading a couple of passages and then they will ask you questions. From there, they will base your reading level using the alphabet with A being the lowest level, like on a kindergartner’s level, to Z being the highest, which was an 8th grader’s reading level. I was usually given an S,sometimes a T depending on the teacher that was evaluating me, which was slightly above average, and I was fine with that, especially considering the fact that I was expected to be at a level R anyway. So, my teachers really never pushed me to do more. “ Sianneh your are doing so well, so I wouldn’t worry too much. You're so smart”.  My ignorance to this, blinded me from seeing this as a problem until a decision that I made later on opened my eyes to it.
Going back to my experience with reading in elementary, my indifference towards books quickly came to a close in 3rd grade, when I found out my sister’s reading level. “ You’re on a Y” I said in amazement. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly “Sianneh it’s not that big of deal. You’re at a high level too” That was not what I wanted to here. “I don’t care!” I said angrily “ I want to be as high as you and I’m going to be too”. It proved to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be, and looking back at it now, I understood why. There was a lack of encouragement for challenging yourself, and there was more encouragement for stagnance. “ Sianneh you’re already on the right track now. it doesn't matter what level your sister’s on”  This is not a problem until it starts to prohibit the opportunities to challenge yourself.
When it came to challenging yourself, most of the initiative had to come from you while you were in an environment that promotes being average as the main goal. While I was trying to improve my reading level, I found out the more you read, the better your result were, especially when you tried to read challenging books. I remembered with the library that we had in class, they would organize the books based on your level as well. The easiest books were at the top-mid shelf while the harder book were more towards the bottom. In fact, with the harder books, there weren't that many interesting ones that I could really remember. There were just random books. They would be mostly be books that were on history or war. I still did not let that discourage me though. I went outside of school, to libraries and I read with my dad. “ You need to try and read everyday. It’s a long time commitment that requires a lot of dedication.” He would say to me. It took some time, but I was able to finally get where on the level that I was able to be on, and my love for read grew by that time too, but from there I only wanted to go further.
That was when I started to notice the looks of surprise that people started giving me for choosing books that they never expected a child to read. “ Wow, I never thought someone like you could read books like these.” , “ That looks like a challenging book, I’m surprised you chose something so difficult” People saw me as some sort of fascinating oddity. In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” he addresses this issue as well. He stated that “ If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might’ve been called a prodigy”(13). I was, naturally, surprised that people would look at kids who were not white, yet still very educated like they was so sort of rare occurrence when it should be the norm. It made me think, now, and I realized that when they look at a smart minority, their astonishment is not about child’s intellect, it’s about the child’s success in a broke system.
When you are apart of an environment that is set up for failure, or being average as the main goal, someone who is able to go against that and succeed is something rare. It shouldn’t have to be that way at all. Literacy should not have limitations of any form. It is a simple, yet complex form that should be available to everyone. Anyone can read just about anything they choose as long as they are able to understand and answer these three important question. Who is speaking? What happened? Why does it matter? Now, people might say  that there is more to this process, which is true. The reason that sometimes these question can be hard to answer at times is because there is a lack in vocabulary and experience. Vocab is the easy part. All there is to do is to learn more words, but most of the time experience can be challenging. You have to understand where the author’s character is coming from and the times, as well as the society of the story. Only then can you understand the significance of what happened and why it matters coming from the person who is speaking. Once you overcome these two setbacks you can read just about anything at any age.