Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass

In "How I learned to Read and Write" by Frederick Douglass, he speaks about what it was like to be a slave in the 1800's that was not allowed to learn to read and write. As far as white people were concerned, he was only there to work and nothing more. However, his masters wife had started to teach him when he first came to live with them until the master told his wife not to teach him because it would ruin him as a slave. After that he did everything he could to learn. Learning to read and write was the most important thing to him. I have never been one to read and write unless I had to. People have always told me since I was young that I needed to read more, but I have always had a hard time reading anything unless it catches my interest and keeps it. I believe this has a lot to do with the television and internet because anything you can read in a book can usually be found in a movie or some other form on the internet. I don't remember when I first started to read and write but I do remember my mother could not help much do to her learning disability and the fact she didn't read very well herself. Once I got into school, I do know that I struggled with it enough that they held me back in kindergarten. They said it was because of my age but I think if I had done better I would not have been held back. Douglass struggled because he didn't have many people to help him where I had teachers that helped me. It probably took him longer to learn to read than it did for me because he had chores daily and he had to hide that he was learning.