Malcolm X and Mike Rose – Comparing the Difference and Similarities

The major difference that comes to mind after reading both Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average” and Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” Is that Malcolm X wanted so desperately to learn, but given his life situation, did not have an apparent opportunity. Mike Rose, however, had every opportunity to receive all the knowledge he wished, but did not realize what he was missing out on when he was accidentally placed in vocational education classes. Given the completely different circumstances in which Mike and Malcolm acquired their education, I surprisingly found many similarities between these two narratives.

Both Rose and Malcolm X expressed a degree of frustration inside of them that stemmed from their apparent lack of intellectual abilities. For Malcolm, even the simple act of writing a letter was an impossible challenge. “Trying to write simple English, I not only wasn't articulate, I wasn't even functional.” He says. Similarly, after being placed in “vocational education”, Mike Rose also felt a sense of dysfunction. He became discouraged because his will to learn desperately lacked excitement and enthusiasm. He explains that he defaulted to learn material that he should have learned in the past, therefore losing confidence in himself. He would find himself daydreaming in class rather than focusing on an assignment he knew he would fail. “This is not a new challenge.” He says. “There is, rather, embarrassment and frustration and, not surprisingly, some anger in being reminded once again of longstanding inadequacies.” It wasn't until after much dedication and hard work that they both realized their educational insufficiencies were not caused by inadequacy and unintelligent, but rather the fact that they had not yet discovered their will to learn.

Rose found newly sparked motivation in an inspirational teacher, Jack MacFarland, the same way Malcolm unveiled his urge to learn to read and write with a dictionary and tablet. Clearly expressing a sense of fulfillment, Malcolm says “As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” I believe the emotion of feeling “mentally alive” is what Rose and Malcolm had been craving all along. Once they realized how truly capable they were, there was no stopping them from accomplishing much more in their future endeavors.