It’s Time For Change by Victoria

It’s Time For Change by Victoria - October 2020 Scholarship Essay

It is hard to say what book I’ve read during this year was the best. I often have a hard time picking my favorite book or things that I like the most in general. Although I would love to have several entries describing to you all the books I’ve read, I sadly can not. The book that I chose for this essay is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I first bought the book as a primary source for my African American Literature final project but I grew fond of the book as I read it. Truthfully, I always wanted to have this book once I found out that there was an actual book that the movie was based off on but I thought I would get the book later in life. As we continue, this essay will make you understand why I said that that previous sentence.
When I was younger, I loved watching the movie but I wasn’t able to fully comprehend the true meaning of the movie. So, instead of trying to find out the movie’s message, I just pushed the thoughts aside and forgot about researching the movie. When I was given the opportunity to read the book, I thought about this project all over again and decided to finally pursue my research project. It was because the book and movie both showed an accurate perspective of what was going on during the 1960s in Mississippi.
Since the shutting down of my school due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, I’ve been reading, writing, and striking up a conversation. I have found out that the majority of schools in the United States tend to minimize slavery and issues around the segregation in schools. They simply don’t teach about what really happened or like in my case, the county and state curriculum does not allow for segregation to be a requirement in being able to pass US History. So I have started looking and talking and I found out that as I read what was going on in the book and started connecting it with real-world events during the time that the book was more helpful than it led on even if it is fictional in many aspects. It has changed my views on society but more specifically my education. My own parents even discussed with me that they weren’t taught much about slavery or segregation because it seemed more like an after-thought that held no importance.
The book details a lot of racial and prejudice action against the African-American maids and community. Many things that happened in the book still happens now. I want to use m knowledge from the book and other forms of research to ask our country a question. The question is: Why are we not teaching our children the truth? Why are there many school-issued books that exclude the segregation era that greatly affected the country and not just the 14th Amendment? Why aren’t there many school-issued books (that are in classrooms) detailing the events of the segregation-era?
This book has changed my like and I want to use it to help change this country and make it better for my children and their children. Thank you