Education: The Key To Success In Life

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“It is doubtful that any child can reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.” This was announced by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 (Thompson, 170). It would stand to reason that to live up to this decree, the child’s way of thinking, and quite possibly life, changes in the process of gaining said education. This is especially true of a black student attending a predominantly white school. I believe that the effect of black students gaining an equal education as their white counterparts improved their lives in many ways. The minority student is coming from a school that was more than likely a substandard facility that provided students with out-dated textbooks and little, if any, supplies for the learning process (Brown Case – Brown v. Board). They usually live in the poorer neighborhoods and direct contact with whites is limited to supplying labor. This accounts for some of the differences between an African-American person leaving their own social community and venturing off to a desegregated school. Not only would they be mentally unprepared educationally, but they also come face to face with an unfamiliar race and their beliefs and practices. African-Americans and whites need to learn to accept each other, and each other’s culture, if both attend the same schools and have equality in education.

There are many factors to keep in mind about how life changes for an African-American student who wants to leave the ghetto and receive a college level education at a school they were previously denied entry to due to the color of their skin. These include, but are not limited to, lifestyle, employment and behavior. Lifestyles vary between races due to different religion...

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