1. Coates sees the relationship of education and success as made up. He views education as a way to let people have control over him with the constant rules and discipline. He claims that to call yourself educated you had to be disciplined and follow the rules, but that wasn’t the case where he grew up. Education was also inflected by race as Coates states, “The world had no time for the childhoods of black boys and girls. How could the schools? Algebra, Biology, and English were not subjects so much as opportunities to better discipline the body…” (Coates 2). Here, Coates explains that education was not made for his race. Having to be an expert on the streets to protect yourself is arguably more important than education, and because of this Coates feels as if education is distant to him. He also talks about how everyone wants to live the dream of not being worried and eating good food to the classic white picket fence seen in a lot of white people’s yards. Because of this, he says all black people live in fear because of the dream, the dream to ultimately live how a white person is viewed. This allows him to feel distant because all he knew was that the dream was something he was not, and that education lead toward the dream. There were many failures Coates had while in school, such as threatening his teacher, but he found success with his mom and writing. In a sense, it seemed like writing kept him out of trouble, and that his mom allowed him to release himself and really think about his actions and his future. All in all, this is how Coates found his success.
  2. With the book being written in the form of a letter, it feels more personal and that a lot of thought and detail was put into it to allow the reader to feel something. This being said, it creates the content to be more personal and descriptive so the intended reader can understand on a deep level what the idea of the letter is about. Coates states, “Your grandmother was not teaching me hot to behave in class”(Coates 3). This excerpt resembles a letter because he addresses his mom as “your grandma” like the intended person knew who she was. This means this letter was directed towards someone directly, his son. He also uses great detail when explaining the people who would sit in the street and go into the store and buy drinks when they were handed money, almost as if the intended reader knew exactly what he was talking about. I feel as if Coates has a larger audience in mind when he goes on to explain how school was not meant for him and that the streets were what he knew. I think this because he becomes very specific when talking about the “Dream” as if it was towards a general audience, but becomes vague with personal details to his son. The form of this allows the audience to be moved by the excerpt because it shows so many personal details of Coates life.
  3. I was never super into school like some of my friends were. I get passing grades and do well in some classes, but I was never driven to exceed expectations or do any extra credit work. I did the bare minimum and that was enough to get me through high school. I feel as though school was not the place for me, and it was not until my senior year that I started becoming comfortable with schooling. My senior year I was able to choose the science classes I was interested in rather than take the mandatory computer engineering classes that pertain nothing to what I wanted to do when I grew up. In a sense, I feel like I can relate to Coates with that distant feelings towards school, that said it was preparing me for later in life, when in reality it did not prepare me at all. Coates claims, “I remember sitting in my seventh-grade French class and not having any idea why I was there. I did not know any French people, and nothing around me suggested I ever would” (Coates 2). Here, Coates is making the assumption that school is not for everyone, not everyone is interested in learning, and if it does not pertain to them then why are they doing it? School did not pertain to Coates as he was not interested in it, like it did not pertain to me until my senior year of high school when things started to become relevant.