His feet pounded down onto the blood-stained floor, his stomps ricocheting around the desolate hallway. All around him lights flared and sirens shrieked endlessly, a visual symphony to accompany his impending doom. Shadows encapsulated every part of the room, yet his eyes still darted around, attempting to find any sign of the incoming danger. He sprinted into the confined box of the elevator, the walls around him hugging him close, as if to say he would be safe here. He slammed his hands against the flickering buttons, drops of blood sliding down the metal as he punched it again and again. Seconds passed, each one ticking by ever so slowly, battling his increasingly fast heartbeat. The once welcoming walls began to close in on him, tightening …show more content…
With the style of learning that is widely used today we force one kind of literacy onto students. We decide for our students what should and should not be valued. We decide that a boy who is literate in music is less important than someone who is literate in math. Yet our education system attempts to squash literacies that lean against their ideals. Sherman Alexie's’ Superman and Me addresses this very issue in Indian schools: “They struggled with basic reading in school but could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs. They were monosyllabic in front of their non-Indian teachers but could tell complicated stories and jokes at the dinner table.” Alexie shows how the Indian children prosper in the environments that support them. Where their family and friends are they can recite song and story, yet where they are penalized and shunned they fail. Because their school rejects their individual literacies and talents, they disappoint inside the classroom. These systemic issues create one set form of literacy and learning, where those who do not succeed are ostracized. These schools allow tiny inked letters based on tests ignorant of your history to determine your