Learner Autobiography Reflection

Brittany Stanford
EDSE 558
June 15, 2015
Reading Warriors Dont Cry was truly an eye opening experience for me from both a
historical and educational standpoint. In my history classes, I have always learned about the
Little Rock Nine as one of the twigs in the civil rights unit. It was not until I read Melba
Pattillos autobiography, however, that I truly understood the magnitude and significance of what
happened in Arkansass Central High School in 1957 and the impact a close reading of this
autobiography could have on me as a future educator.
I believe Warriors Dont Cry perfectly demonstrates the extent to which an individuals
schooling experience can impact him/her as a learner. Growing up with a mother who is an
educator and a family that is centered on support, love, and respect, Melba Pattillo always valued
her education and excelled in school. The year Melba attended Central High School, however,
her experiences heavily impacted her as a learner. This is emphasized in Pattillo-Beals (1994)
when Melba mentioned that by spring semester, I had withdrawn from French class because I
wasnt able to concentrate with the combined pressure of the extremely hostile students and
coping with everything else. I was also concerned that I couldnt do my best in my English
shorthand, and typing classes, all of which would have been a breeze under any other
circumstances (p. 157-158). As a future educator, the effects Melbas surroundings had on her
performance in the classroom served as an important reminder to me that many factors go into a
students performance other than their intelligence and ability.
While in some circumstances, like Melbas, the factors effecting a students performance
in the classroom is the school environment, in other situations, a student may be effected as a
learner due to circumstances outside of school or at home. The latter point is emphasized through
Nathan McCalls autobiography, Makes Me Wanna Holler (1994). Despite Nathans poor
performance and lack of interest in school his entire life, his true potential as a student was
demonstrated his freshman year of college when he earned a 3.0 GPA and made the honor roll. It
was not his lack of understanding or intelligence that kept Nathan from making good grades in
middle and high school, but rather the bad company he kept and the trouble he stayed in as a
result of his choices. Both Nathan and Melbas experiences emphasize the importance for me as
an educator to be aware of circumstances going on in my students lives that may effect their
performance in my classroom.
In addition to the effect a students experiences can have on them as a learner, a close
reading of Warriors Dont Cry has also taught me a lot about the significance of my role in the
classroom. Foremost, Melbas experience at Central High School reiterated the importance of
classroom management. Although I was amazed at the extent of the cruelties that happened to
Melba and the other eight students during that school year, it was the brutalities that occurred
inside the classrooms that I found most shocking. As if being spat on, kicked, sprayed with acid,
and attacked with dynamite in the hallways of Central High School was not mentally and
physically taxing enough, Melba was rarely even safe to relax and focus once she finally reached
the inside of her classrooms. Melba recalled the first day she walked into her homeroom class the
white students began to surround her, threatening her with physical violence. Melba described
her disappointment as she waited for the teacher to intervene on her behalf, but instead found the
teacher ignoring the situation culminating in her classroom (Patillo-Beals, 1994).

This theme of improper classroom management was not only prevalent in Warriors Dont
Cry, but many of the other learner autobiographies as well, including Patrick Chamoiseaus
School Days (1997). In his autobiography, Patrick reflects on a teacher who diminished his sense
of wonder and curiosity in school at a very young age. This teacher made Patrick feel ashamed of
his Creole culture through his support of the French colonial occupiers as the ideal image for
which everyone should strive. Furthermore, the teacher very obviously picked favorites and
endorsed bullying towards Patrick and the other students who were loyal to their Creole culture
(Chamoiseau, 1997). As a teacher, it will be my responsibility to ensure everyone is as successful
as possible in my classroom by creating an environment that makes every one of my students
feel safe and respected. A big part of embracing this responsibility is keeping my personal beliefs
and opinions out of the classroom, especially if they could be offensive to a student. Even if the
teachers at Central High School truly believed in segregation, or if the teacher in School Days
truly believed in French culture as superior, it was their responsibility to put their personal
beliefs aside in order to create an environment conducive to learning for all of their students.
Ultimately, as a future teacher, these autobiographies emphasized to me the importance of
classroom management because of the way they in which a chaotic and unsupervised classroom
negatively affected students.
Lastly, studying these various learner autobiographies reiterated for me the impact
teachers can have on students by setting premature expectations of their intelligence and ability.
Melba and the other Little Rock Nine students experienced this first hand because of the color
of their skin. They were under constant pressure to behave perfectly or risk their actions to be
blamed on their skin color. If society, and especially the school board, had not made premature
expectations for Melba and the other black students before giving them the opportunity to be
themselves at Central High School, they would have had a completely different experience as
students. Similarly, Audre Lorde described in her autobiography, Zami: A New Spelling of my
Name (1982), that going to school was a rude awakening, as her teachers expectations for her as
a legally blind student had nothing to do with her actual ability (Lorde, 1982). Rather than
embracing her disability and challenging Audre to be her personal best, her teachers set preexpectations that impacted her as a learner throughout her educational experience. Furthermore,
this theme is demonstrated through John Robisons autobiography, Look Me in the Eye (2007)
where he describes the adults in his life as very enabling and quick to judge. At a very young
age, John was showing symptoms of Aspergers, especially in social situations. Rather than
holding John to the same standards as other children, adults often brushed off his misbehaviors.
This only set John up for further problems once he started attending school because he had never
been taught or required to abide by the same rules as other children his age (Robison, 2007).
Overall, all of these learner experiences emphasize the need for educators to make a conscious
effort not to set premature expectations for students before we get to know them and their
abilities.
In conclusion, a close reading of Warriors Dont Cry provided me with a new
perspective on the impact a students experience in a classroom can have on them as a learner.
Furthermore, the autobiography provided me with a better understanding of the impact I can
have on my future students by simply caring and respecting for them as individuals and
providing them with a safe and productive learning environment.

Reference List
Chamoiseau, Patrick. (1997). School Days. London: Granta Books.
Lorde, Audre. (1982). Zami: A New Spelling of my Name. New York: Crossing Press.
McCall, Nathan. (1994). Makes Me Wanna Holler. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group
Pattillo-Beal, M. (1994). Warriors Dont Cry. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Robison, John. (2007). Look Me in the Eye. New York: Crown Reads.