How the five educational narratives differ

The five educational Narratives we have been reading in class all have at least two things in common: they are all inspirational, and they all tell about an educational experience in which the writer learned how to do something significant to them. While the theme of education is consistent, each narrative differed in many ways.

              

               Malcolm X and Mike Rose both told more personal story about their journey to obtaining an education. Malcolm, focusing on the significance of reading and writing, and Rose focusing more on the broad idea of education in general. Their stories shared the common fact that both men were very smart, but did not realize it until they fully applied themselves. They differed in the way that Malcolm stressed more of a desperate desire to learn how to read. He knew that he would be able to communicate better if he could adequately express himself to others. Rose on the other hand was rather “going with the flow” though his experience in vocational education until he realized his potential and started trying harder. Whereas a bloggers narrative tends to be more practical, the style of writing in both Malcolm and Rose’s narratives was like that of something you would see in a book. They were formal, organized and came across clearly to the reader.

The three blog-style narratives “How to live Google Free”, “How I Learned to Program Computers”, and “How I Learned to Travel Solo” seemed to have a more practical approach. The layouts of each blog were sectioned off into several parts. These narratives were not so much stories as they were “how to” guides.  Joshua Romero for example, took the reader on a step by step journey on how to live Google free. He started by telling the reader why he made this decision. He included details such as how he went about recovering data, onto finding a new email account and search engine. Similarly, Feross Aboukhadijeh started from the beginning of his journey when he was a boy that was interested making a website. As he went on, he informed the reader exactly how and why he learned about the different techniques of computer programming and eventually becoming a successful web designer. Cate Huston used this same “step by step” method in her “traveling solo” guide. Although, she provided more tips based on her personal experiences rather than just explaining how it’s done.

I enjoyed reading all five of the education narratives given to us. I will use elements of each narrative to create one of my own that is interesting, inspirational, and of course, educational.