Reflection Essay: A Place At The Table

Another principal part of life that can harm a child’s capacity to obtain knowledge is their nourishment. Hunger is the first priority for all humans, for they need the energy from food in order to function properly, as well as continue living. A lack of sufficient nutrients can not only cause children to lose focus, but it can also impair their overall development; the film A Place at the Table clearly demonstrates the severe consequences that hunger can place on families. If I remember correctly, one of the kids shown in the film was a girl named Rosie, and she was performing poorly in school because she was too famished to pay attention in class. She genuinely wants to learn at school and pursue a career (possibly a teacher), but she …show more content…
During my second day of my service-learning experience, I was able to easily identify the clowns of my class after starting the lesson on organization. I displayed multiple pictures of organized scenarios to the class and I asked them to tell me what they all have in common. There were students who gave the correct answer, but there were some who said that they “are all pictures” or that they “are all held up by magnets.” I knew that they were simply joking around, but I later examined the students’ name tents and discovered that some of the questions they wrote for me asked why they needed to go to school. These questions, combined with the fact that some students did not take the lesson seriously, leads me to believe that there are kids who legitimately cannot find a purpose for an education. The behaviors of those students also remind me of both Wes Moores and their friends, who probably shared similar beliefs during their childhood. After all, the other Wes Moore’s grades started to lower as “football became more important in [his] life” (Moore 29); the author Wes Moore could “effortlessly recite hip-hop lyrics while struggling with [his] English class” (76) because he would regularly skip school. These situations emphasize how each Wes Moore valued his entertainment more than the knowledge he would have obtained at school. Another example takes place at the beginning of chapter six, where we see that White Boy, one of the other Wes Moore’s friends, left school because he “ was tired of [it] and decided joining the workforce was a better option” (109). In this case, we learn how people would choose employment over education, and although the latter would help them attain the former, they simply do not realize that fact. The behaviors and thoughts of the Wes Moores, their friends, and the service-learning