Blog Number 1 on "Bad Boy", by Walter Dean Myers

     In "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers, he is struggling in school. He is not struggling grade wise, but action wise. Many of Walter's classmates are making fun of him because of the way he talks. They would mock him by saying things like "dabba dabba dabba", because he could not pronounce some words properly. This would push Walter to his limits causing him to rely on violence. Violence may have not been the best idea, but it sure seemed to make most of the kids stop mocking him. Walter's teachers recommended him for speech therapy once a week at the school. This helped Walter greatly. One problem that he had after this, was that teachers had talked bad about him to other teachers so, the teachers that Walter had had all heard that he acted up a lot and was very violent. The only times Walter was violent was when his classmates would bully him because of his speech problem. Walter's acts of violence became less and less as time passed and he began to speak more fluently, as well as pronounce his words correctly.

     This story relates to things in my life, because kids would make fun of me and my other classmates, based on the clothes we wore, or the things we did. In my case it was the things I was into. Not many people I knew were into the kind of music I liked, and some aren't even now. I was raised listening to grunge, punk, and some forms of heavy metal. Many people thought that it was a little odd, just for the fact that they didn't listen to that kind of music. Honestly it didn't bother me until people started to make jokes and stuff about me because of my "style". I tried to not let it bother me, but at times people pushed it too far. I then realized later on that everyone is different and what they think of me shouldn't make me want to change who I am. This is one situation in which Walter Dean Myers and I can relate to each other.