Square One

Mason Labash

English 48b

January 10, 2011

Journal #3 Booker T. Washington

“I need not add, that several of the boys who began their careers with “store hats”  and who were my schoolmates and used to join in the sport that was made of me because I had only a “homespun” cap, have ended their careers in the penitentiary, while others are not able now to buy any kind of hat.”

"Washington believed that the best interests of black people in the post-Reconstruction era could be realized through education in the crafts and industrial skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift."

The students in Booker’s class who poked fun at him for not having the same superficial material possessions as they had do not realize what carries the most significance in life. They got those hats through the effort of their parents yet feel entitled to put down a fellow student who is putting in an extensive effort to just to be at a level where they’re already at. I want to point out that it is the students who, not only had the store bought hats but even went as far as to ridicule those who did not, are the ones who have made the least movement toward their full potential.

 When one lives a life similar to Washington’s in which even the smallest things are given the utmost appreciation they are driven from the very core of their being to make the absolute best out of what they have. They strive to better themselves in an extremely efficient and resourceful way. When a child takes almost everything for granted and doesn’t struggle to attain what they desire they are being set up for disaster. According to Washington, it is the environment that a child is raised in as well as born into that has the most lasting effect on an individual’s perspective and motivation.

Washington is able to recall every little detail about the hat and why we wanted it so. How his mother wasn’t about to be in debt so that her child would fit in with a bunch of classmates that were putting on a false image. Do the kids who quickly went out and purchased run-of-the-mill “store hats” remember the whole event with such clarity and admiration? I think not. Washington and his mother’s values immediately reminded me of the values that my parents have instilled in me. I was taught to be grateful for everything I have because everyone in my family that came before me basically got me to where I am now. If my parents hadn’t worked as hard as they did, I wouldn’t have grown up in Palo Alto and attended one of the top high schools in the country. I strongly agree that people’s motivation to succeed in life is a direct result of where they started out.

 The fact that the students who made fun of Washington are now in a much worse position later in life says a lot.  If a person is raised up in an unrealistic environment where everything is handed to them they have no desire in learning of the obstacles it took to get them there. When you don’t know what you have it is so easy to lose it all which is the way it should be. Only when you’re at square one can you appreciate the benefits one reaps from status.

"Booker T. Washington." 2011. Biography.com. 11 Jan 2011, 08:12 http://www.biography.com/articles/Booker-T.-Washington-9524663.