WA2
Eddie Arciga
Shannon Carter
Honors English
29. September. 2009
WA2
When you see a building what do you think of? What is in it? Who walks through it? Or do you simply just walk by and kind of acknowledge that it is there but do not really pay too close attention to anything that may be happening in the certain building. Most of the time you can not tell anything about a person when they walk out of a building besides the fact they just walked out of that building. The Hall of Languages is a perfrect example to what I am speaking.
As a very important building, the Hall of Languages serves the purpose to educate all of those who may enter it with the same kind of treatment. This building serves as a reminder of the founder of this whole university, Mayo. Like in Gold’s article, equal opportunity is a big part of the university so therefore, it suits to say that in the Hall of Languages the opportunities for the students are equal as well. This building is important not only because of that but because of what kind of learning that occurs within. Also in concordance to Mayo, this biulding serves to build upon the literacy skills of all who enter whether they are American, Mexican, poor, rich, Christian or Agnostic. Whoever they may be, they are receiving the same kind of treatment within the barriers of the complex.
Like Mayo, I believe in an equal opportunity setting and I truly believe that everytime I see the Hall of Languages, whether it is going to class or just walking by, I notice everyone that comes through there and I sit and think about all the different backgrounds that they may come from. I will probably never know the real backgrounds behind them all just due to the fact that you can not tell anything from the way they come out the doors or come in through them.
Take for example in the previous picture that you saw. Are you able to pick out the backgrounds of each one? Which one is going to succeed? Unless you previously knew them I do not believe you would be able to pick out anything from just seeing them stand there in front of the Hall of Languages. The one thing I can tell you is that they are all striving to be more educated in reading their books. They all have ambitions of one day becoming someone renowned, someone of importance, and therefore they take their education as a serious manner. Two of them are standing there discussing a book and trying to maybe get a better grasp of what it really means. They always have said that two heads are better than one and it seems to me here that they are engaged in that thought to maybe help enrich their understanding of whatever it may be that they are discussing. The other Girl in the picture is reading a book as she prepares to walk into not only a building but a community of students where the common goal is to learn. None of the students or teachers in the building are prejudice for any reason, one, because they do not personally know what that student goes or has gone through, and two, because Mayo left a legacy that every student should be treated equally in importance. As she approaches this building she embraces herself for a magical moment that is yet to come where her understanding and knowledge of literacy will be improved and in turn help her succeed with any goal she may have for her future. None of the people in this picture have to worry about what they may be called or if anyone will have a prejudice towards them. They know that every person that walks by just notices that they are students and just think, “Hey, there is another kid going to English class.” The fact that this is possible and true in the community of Commerce is something that is really neat to know.
This picture represents the same concept that Mayo laid out while he was alive. “We want your story,” here we see that the university is interested in your own story. Since they can not just label you when you walk by, they have taken interest to know all the different stories that are behind all the students that walk through the doors at the Hall of Languages.
With so many interesting backgrounds and environments that exist on campus it is very hard to say which environment is the one that produces the best literacy, if that is even possible to say. I do not believe that the environment you were raised in determines how you will develop your literacy, I do think that sometimes it affects the way you do it but that is all dependant on the way you take the challenges that arise while you are trying to make something of yourself. How bad you want something in the end is what determines your success. The determination you put in something is what determines the outcome and whether it is good or bad.
Literacy can be found in many forms and the diversity of the students within the Hall of Languages alone produce various ways to putting to use literacy in their everyday lives. Some use pencil and paper to jot down thoughts and anything that may be thought provoking while others simply like to take pictures of certain things that to them will function in the same way to provoke some thoughts. Background and environment sometimes have little to do with what kind of literay one uses but the one thing that is true is that no matter what, every student that steps through the Hall of Languages use s one way of literacy.Whether you are writing stuff down on paper or you are taking pictures of words, the concept is the same; you are using literacy in your life. The way you do it does not matter as much as the fact that you are just simply doing it.
Thanks to William Mayo, a lot of kids that would otherwise not have a college education were privalaged with the honor of attending this universtiy to study and continue to pursue their goals. Backgrounds and ceratin situations played little part in the role to getting to come to this university.Mayo believed in hard work and determination and as long as you possessd those two traits, he would find a way of letting you be a part of this great university of opportunity. So it only fits that Mayo being an English teacher, that when you see the Hall of Languages, you can see his works being put to use as he intended them to be used. Thanks to him, diversity with no prejudices within the building are possible where as in many other places that may not be possible, so consider our community of Commerce very fortunate to have had Mayo lead by example so many years ago.
